A former Lancashire Police officer has been handed a lengthy jail sentence for an attempted murder in Manchester city centre.
James Riley, from Preston in Lancashire, was sentenced to 16 years behind bars at Manchester Crown Court last Friday (12 January) after pleading guilty to the offence.
The sentencing comes after Greater Manchester Police (GMP) initially responded to a call of concern for the welfare of a woman in her 20s, who was found unresponsive at a hotel on Brook Street in Manchester city centre on the night of Thursday 10 November 2022.
She was found by emergency services in a life-threatening condition, and was later transferred to hospital in an induced coma, but thankfully, she regained consciousness the following day – although she has suffered some long-lasting injuries as a result.
28 year-old Riley – who was not on duty at the time of the incident – made a roughly 10-minute call to his family, before anonymously calling for an ambulance and then proceeding to flee the scene, leaving the victim behind.
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He tried to evade capture using several different types of transport to hide his tracks and direction of travel, according to GMP.
#JAILED | These are the movements of James Riley, a former Lancashire Police officer, who has been sentenced to 16 years for an attempt murder.
He was off duty at the time of the incident which took place in the city centre in November 2022.
This was initially done by Riley exiting the hotel in his car, before crashing it nearby, and then running from the scene and attempting to get on a bus, taxi, and hitchhike back home to Lancashire – but a CCTV trawl, which was described as “painstaking”, saw police manage to track Riley’s movements in the aftermath of the incident.
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It also went on to further highlight Riley’s instincts and intention on evading capture by retrieving two £250 cash transactions from different ATMs, and then discarding his mobile phone to make sure he couldn’t be digitally tracked.
A “wide-ranging search” for Riley using a number of resources – including specialist operations across three police forces in the North West – followed this, all before he was found and arrested in the early hours of the morning in West Yorkshire.
Lancashire Police then immediately suspended Riley, and launched an internal investigation into his conduct, alongside the criminal enquiries by GMP – which led to an accelerated misconduct hearing, where he was dismissed from the force without notice.
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Riley has also been added to the College of Policing barred list, GMP has confirmed.
Featured Image – GMP
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High School Musical at Lowry, Salford – a night spent reliving our childhood | Review
Amy Williams
What a night spent reliving our childhood.
Now, I don’t want to exaggerate or seem biased, considering this is one of my favourite film trilogies of all time, but this could be the best stage show I’ve seen in a long while.
We all know how High School Musical goes, right? Set at East High, we follow Troy and Gabriella (the star basketball player, and the geeky new girl) who meet over New Year, and then become ‘star-crossed lovers’ when back at school as they’re part of two different ‘cliques’.
The duo mess with the ‘Status Quo’ when they audition for the school musical. But will they stick to what they know? Or become stars of the stage? I’m sure you know the ending.
High School Musical is currently on stage at Lowry, Salford / Credit: Matt Crockett (Supplied)
From the costumes and the characters, to the memorable songs (there’s actually 52 songs in this production, including a mega mix at the end), they’ve kept right to the script of the films – and that’s exactly what we wanted to see.
Of course, the biggest throwback of them all is Kaycee Stroh – who originally featured as Martha Cox in the film trilogy – taking the role as Ms Darbus, and she was just as incredible as we expected her to be. And to see her do the iconic dance in the finale was unbelievable, 13-year-old Amy was screaming.
Also featuring Jason Donovan as Coach Bolton, Tobias Turley as Troy, Leonor Correia as Gabriella, Caitlin Tipping Sharpay, and Luke Bayer as Ryan, it was a proper impressive cast all round.
It’s a night to properly relive your mid-00s childhood / Credit: Matt Crockett (Supplied)
There was crowd interaction right from the off, as they taught the crowd a cheerleading routine to be included later in the show, plus for the finale, they had the lyrics on the big screen too so everyone could sing-along.
If we could go and see this show every single night, we would – it is absolutely brilliant.
Fontaines D.C. announce massive return to Manchester on new European tour
Daisy Jackson
Fontaines D.C. have just announced their biggest headline tour to date, including a massive arena gig here in Manchester.
The wildly popular Irish rock band are set to play a whopping 20 arena shows across Europe and the UK this autumn.
The tour has been announced in celebration of their upcoming fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, which is set for release this October.
Fontaines D.C. will hit the road just five days after the album drops, kicking off their European tour in Lisbon on 21 October.
Then they’ll make their way over to the UK, with shows in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham and London.
Fans in their home country of Ireland are told to stay tuned for live news very soon.
As we speak, Fontaines D.C. are warming up to play one of the country’s biggest festivals, with headline slots at Reading & Leeds Festival.
They’ve already released Marianne, the first single from their new album, and frontman Grian Chatten says of the album: “The album itself is a dopamine chamber. You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”
The new record has been recorded between London, the English countryside, and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.
He said: “There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity.”
Tickets will go on general sale at 10am on Thursday 3 September, with pre-sale live from 10am on Tuesday 1 September.
You can access tickets for Fontaines D.C. in Manchester HERE.
Fans who pre-order Dopamine Chamber from the official store by 6pm on Monday 31 August will gain access to the UK pre-sale.
Fontaines D.C. UK tour dates in full
Friday 20 November – Liverpool, UK – M&S Bank Arena
Saturday 21 November – Manchester, UK – AO Arena
Sunday 22 November – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
Tuesday 24 November – Leeds, UK – First Direct Bank Arena
Wednesday 25 November – Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena
Emily Sergeant -
15th January 2024 
