2025 incident archive
23 documented cases.
- Homicide in southampton, GB
· Convicted · 1 source
An 18-year-old university student was fatally stabbed in Southampton on 3 December 2025. The man responsible was convicted of murder and jailed for life at Southampton Crown Court, with a minimum term of 21 years set at a sentencing hearing in June 2026. After the stabbing he had falsely told police that he was himself the victim of a racist attack. The case is at an appellate stage with two challenges running in opposite directions. In June 2026 the Solicitor General referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient. On Friday 3 July 2026 the Court of Appeal confirmed that the convicted man is seeking to appeal against both his conviction and his sentence. No date had been set for either hearing, and no details of his challenge were disclosed. The death also prompted protests after the release of police body-worn footage showing officers handcuffing the victim as he lay dying rather than giving him first aid, despite his telling them that he had been stabbed and could not breathe. At the sentencing the victim's father said the difference between the treatment of his son and that of the killer was "unbearable", and the Prime Minister said the following day that there were serious questions to answer about the case, later meeting the family. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating two officers for potential gross misconduct, including a possible failure to recognise that the victim needed urgent medical attention and the decision to arrest and handcuff him instead of treating him, and is also examining whether race or religion played a part.
- Homicide in forlì, IT
· Charged · 2 sources
An 85-year-old woman died on 25 November 2025 in the province of Forlì-Cesena while being transported by ambulance. A post-mortem examination found that she had died of an embolism caused by an abnormal flow of air into her bloodstream. The Forlì public prosecutor's office accuses a former Red Cross ambulance driver of having killed elderly patients in his care. On 18 August 2026 the case was sent for immediate trial, and a hearing before the Corte d'Assise in Forlì was set for 15 October 2026. The accused remains subject to precautionary custodial measures. Investigations into five further deaths attributed to him were reported as still open at the time of the cited coverage, and are not part of this record.
- Attempted homicide in edinburgh, GB
· Convicted · 2 sources
A 30-year-old woman was stabbed repeatedly on Duke Street in Leith, Edinburgh, in November 2025, as she walked to a GP appointment with her young daughter in a pram. Her estranged husband, from whom she had moved away, approached them in the street, told her he had a knife, seized her by the hair and stabbed her about the head and body. Three men who witnessed the attack came to her aid, disarmed him and held him until police arrived. She sustained twelve injuries, including facial scarring and a collapsed lung, and spent four days in hospital. The couple had married abroad about four years before the attack and had moved to London, where their daughter was born. After the relationship broke down the victim and the child moved to Edinburgh, where he tracked them down — which the sentencing judge said indicated a degree of foresight. In August 2026 the man, 26, admitted attempted murder at the High Court in Edinburgh and was jailed for seven and a half years. The judge described a sustained attack on a defenceless victim, said she could have died and that her survival owed to a combination of luck and the intervention of passers-by, and commended those who stepped in. He was also banned from contacting her for life.
- Homicide in doneraile, IE
· Convicted · 2 sources
A 21-year-old man has been found guilty of the murder of a Cork postman. A 17-year-old boy was separately found guilty of the same murder on 30 July 2026. Victim impact statements are to be heard before he is sentenced.
- Homicide in liverpool, GB
· Alleged · 1 source
A woman of 68 was found with a blunt-force head injury at her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, just after 12.30pm on Saturday 4 October 2025. Merseyside Police opened a murder investigation into her death. A 37-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of her murder in May 2026 and remains on conditional bail. No charge had been brought at the time of the cited report. On 14 August 2026, on what would have been the victim's 69th birthday, her family made a public appeal for anyone with information to contact the police or pass it anonymously to Crimestoppers, which is offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information leading to an arrest. The senior investigating officer said detectives believe the answers lie within the local community and that people with information have not yet come forward.
- Homicide in manchester, GB
· Charged · 1 source
Two worshippers were killed in an attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester on 2 October 2025. A 35-year-old Syrian-born British citizen drove a car into the synagogue gates and then attacked people with a knife while wearing a fake suicide belt. Three other men were treated in hospital for serious injuries and have since been released. On 20 August 2026 Counter Terrorism Policing North West charged a 49-year-old Iraqi national, of Higher Broughton in Salford, with failing to disclose information regarding terrorist activity under section 38B of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was remanded in custody to appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court. The assistant chief constable with operational responsibility for Counter Terrorism Policing North West confirmed that the charge is directly related to the attack on the synagogue and described it as a significant development in the investigation.
- Homicide in mäder, AT
· Acquitted · 1 source
A 78-year-old woman was suffocated at her home in Mäder, in the Feldkirch district of Vorarlberg, in October 2025. Her 57-year-old daughter, who had been visiting, was found to have held her mouth and nose shut. A court medical examiner found bleeding and bruising at several points on the body consistent with defensive and struggle injuries, a compressed chest and discolouration around the mouth and nose, and concluded that blunt force had been applied. The defence suggested the victim's lung disease might have caused her death; the examiner found the overall findings pointed unambiguously to a killing, and investigators excluded any other perpetrator. On Monday 3 August 2026 a jury court in Feldkirch committed the daughter to a forensic therapeutic centre. A psychiatric opinion excluded criminal responsibility at the time of the act, so she was not convicted: the jury found unanimously that the act would have constituted murder had she been criminally responsible. She had worked for over twenty years in a social-care profession and had long struggled with anxiety, depression, agitation and restlessness, had repeatedly stopped taking her medication, and says she remembers nothing of the act, stating only that it was possible she had killed her mother. She accepted the ruling and the prosecution waived any appeal, so it is final.
- Attempted homicide in geetbets, BE
· Convicted · 3 sources
The suspect attacked the victim, his ex-partner's adoptive mother, at her home in Geetbets after observing the residence for two days. She sustained more than fifty stab wounds, including at least ten to vital areas, and survived only because of swift medical intervention. A court in Leuven sentenced the suspect to 14 years in prison. After learning of the verdict by text message, he cut off his ankle monitor and fled, but was recaptured the following day by police and the Federal Police's FAST team in his hometown of Aarschot.
- Homicide in plovdiv, BG
· On trial · 1 source
A 52-year-old man died in Plovdiv after being attacked on the evening of 19 September 2025 at the city's "Yug" bus station, where he was waiting for a coach to Bursa. According to the prosecution he encountered the suspect, who was in the area with a companion, and asked why they had robbed him earlier that day; the suspect then took a wooden stake and attacked him. The two chased each other through the bus station exchanging insults before the suspect struck the victim five times, one of the blows to the head, breaking the stake. A forensic medical examination found severe craniocerebral trauma, and the victim died on 22 September 2025. The suspect, a Plovdiv man with prior convictions, is on trial for the killing before the District Court. On 27 August 2026 the court admitted three civil claims brought by the victim's relatives totalling 90,000 euros, to be heard together with the criminal case. The defence asked for the case to be returned to the prosecutor's office, arguing that the indictment failed to record that the victim had initiated the conflict; the judge refused, and the trial was set to continue on 12 October with the examination of witnesses.
- Homicide in gent, BE
· Alleged · 1 source
A social worker employed by the municipal welfare service in Gent was killed on the evening of 13 August 2025 during a round of home visits. When he failed to arrive at his second appointment, police went to the first address he had called at, a social housing unit in the Kikvorsstraat in the Nieuw Gent district, and found him there. He had been killed with violence. He was 56. The resident of the flat, a man who had lived in Belgium for years and had a psychiatric history, had left the scene. He was arrested hours later on the other side of the city and has been held since on suspicion of murder. A reconstruction was carried out at the scene in May 2026. What drove the killing remains unclear. The case prompted a wave of public reaction in Gent and beyond, including a silent vigil the day after the killing and a memorial gathering in Nieuw Gent attended by around a thousand people. It also led welfare services across Flanders to accelerate existing plans on staff safety, including emergency call buttons, redesigned premises with better escape routes, and checklists for home visits.
- Homicide in hurdal, NO
· Charged · 2 sources
A woman was killed in the municipality of Hurdal, in Akershus, on 5 August 2025. According to the indictment she was stabbed 53 times. On 1 August 2026 it was reported that her 28-year-old son had been indicted for the killing. The prosecution considers that he was psychotic at the time of the act, and the Director of Public Prosecutions has ordered an indictment seeking his committal to compulsory psychiatric care rather than a prison sentence. His defence lawyer said he has not denied what happened. The case is due to be heard at Romerike og Glåmdal District Court in late November 2026.
- Homicide in amadora, PT
· Charged · 1 source
A 34-year-old man was shot twelve times in the Cova da Moura neighbourhood of Amadora, in the Lisbon district, on 3 August 2025, and died in hospital of his injuries. The shooting took place during an altercation involving several people, and those responsible fled afterwards. A 41-year-old Portuguese man was arrested in the Marseille region of southern France on 24 June 2026 under a European Arrest Warrant, following a joint operation between the Portuguese judicial police and the French judicial authorities. He was surrendered to Portugal and, after a first judicial interrogation, was remanded in pre-trial detention on suspicion of aggravated homicide.
- Homicide in gemona del friuli, IT
· Charged · 2 sources
Un uomo è stato ucciso e il corpo è stato fatto a pezzi a Gemona del Friuli. La fonte del 26 giugno 2026 riferisce di sviluppi giudiziari sulla custodia cautelare della madre, indicata come imputata confessa.
- Attempted homicide in jambes, BE
· Convicted · 1 source
A man was beaten and left for dead at a house in Jambes, a sub-municipality of Namur, on 24 July 2025. On 20 August 2026 the court in Namur convicted his neighbour, then 49, of attempted murder and sentenced him to 17 years in prison. According to the case heard at trial, the defendant invited the victim into his home, saying he wanted to discuss something with him. Once the victim was inside, he was severely beaten. The defendant then called the emergency services himself, telling the operator that he thought the man was dying. Responders found the victim unconscious in a pool of blood. The victim survived his injuries but has remained in a semi-vegetative state since the attack, unable to communicate or to eat unaided. The defendant suspected the victim of having sexually abused his partner's six-year-old son. Belgian reporting notes that the victim had been convicted in 2020 of abusing a five-year-old child and given a 37-month suspended sentence, that two further complaints of abuse of minors were made against him in the summer of 2025, and that an investigation into the alleged abuse of the defendant's stepson was under way at the time of the attack. The case attracted considerable attention in and beyond the courtroom.
- Homicide in águeda, PT
· Convicted · 2 sources
A 71-year-old man was beaten to death with a wooden pole at his home in Barrô, in the municipality of Águeda, on 20 July 2025. His body was found two days later. According to the prosecution, the two men met on the road in front of the house and drank a beer together before the attacker struck the victim repeatedly, notably to the head. Investigators found the victim's phone and house keys missing and the access gate locked from the outside, and concluded that the perpetrator had made sure the victim could neither call for help nor leave. DNA and fingerprints on a beer bottle, and biological traces on a wooden pole recovered from the yard, matched the man later arrested. He was detained in October 2025 and held in pre-trial custody, and on 29 July 2026 the court in Aveiro convicted him of aggravated homicide and sentenced him to 16 years and six months in prison.
- Homicide in coevorden, NL
· Convicted · 1 source
De rechtbank in Assen heeft the suspect donderdag veroordeeld tot negen jaar cel voor zijn rol bij een dodelijke schietpartij in Coevorden. Daarbij kwam een 21-jarige man om het leven. Een zeventienjarige medeverdachte kreeg 315 dagen jeugddetentie.
- Homicide in bocholtz, NL
· Convicted · 2 sources
A 39-year-old man from Kerkrade was shot dead on the Wilhelminastraat in Bocholtz, in the Dutch province of Limburg, on 29 May 2025. The shooting followed a dispute over the return of a motorcycle club jacket. Two gunmen opened fire almost simultaneously; a 26-year-old man from Bocholtz was shot by the second gunman and survived. On 11 August 2026 the Limburg district court sentenced a 22-year-old man to eleven years' imprisonment for the manslaughter of the 39-year-old and for the attempted manslaughter of another man. The prosecution service had charged murder, or in the alternative manslaughter, and had demanded thirteen years. The other gunman, a 43-year-old man from Heerlen, was convicted earlier in 2026 of the attempted manslaughter of the surviving victim and of unlawful firearm possession, and was sentenced to five years.
- Homicide in rijswijk, NL
· Alleged · 5 sources
A 41-year-old man was shot dead on the terrace of a hotel in Rijswijk, in the province of Zuid-Holland, shortly before 6pm on Thursday 1 May 2025. The terrace was busy at the time. Witnesses described a man walking up with his face uncovered, firing three shots at close range and running off into the park surrounding the hotel. The victim, a Turkish national, died at the scene. Police released a description and images of the gunman, who remains at large, and of a second suspect who was seen standing with him at the entrance to the park for several minutes before the shooting. Investigators treat the killing as a contract killing. The victim had reported threats against his life shortly beforehand; he was himself wanted in Turkey, where prosecutors suspected him of involvement in the shooting of a businessman and his driver in the Turkish-controlled north of Cyprus in 2022, and he had recently made public statements about prominent Turkish political and business figures. On 13 November 2025 a 47-year-old man was arrested in Germany at the request of the Dutch authorities on suspicion of involvement, and he was surrendered to the Netherlands at the end of January 2026; he is not suspected of firing the shots, and how he is connected to the case has not been made public. On 23 March 2026 a 34-year-old Turkish man with no fixed address was arrested in France, suspected of being the gunman; he was held there on a weapons charge while the Netherlands sought his surrender. Police are still looking for a third person believed to have been involved.
- Homicide in mlawa, PL
· Charged · 2 sources
A 16-year-old girl was killed in Mława, in Poland's Masovian Voivodeship, on the evening of 23 April 2025, the day she met the suspect. She was reported missing the following day, and her body was found on 1 May 2025 in scrubland near a production plant belonging to the suspect's family. A post-mortem examination found that she died of extensive head injuries caused by multiple blows. The suspect, who was 17 at the time, was known to the victim and was charged in May 2025 with murder committed with particular cruelty. He was detained in Greece and surrendered to Poland under a European Arrest Warrant. On 13 August 2026 the district prosecutor's office in Płock closed its investigation and filed an indictment against him, now 18, at the regional court in Płock. Twenty witnesses were questioned and 21 expert opinions obtained during the proceedings. He faces up to 30 years' imprisonment and remains in pre-trial detention until the end of September. Experts assessed that his mental state allows him to take part in the proceedings and conduct his own defence.
- Attempted homicide in trondheim, NO
· Charged · 2 sources
A man was stabbed at an address in the Møllenberg district of Trondheim at about 1.30pm on Saturday 29 March 2025. He suffered a cut to the heart that caused cardiac arrest, and survived after emergency treatment at St. Olav's hospital. Two other people were stabbed in the same incident: one was struck seven times, sustaining superficial wounds, and another was stabbed once in the upper arm. In August 2026 a man in his 40s was indicted for attempted murder over the attack. He denies criminal liability; his defence counsel says he acted in self-defence.
- Homicide in san giovanni valdarno, IT
· Acquitted · 1 source
The victim, a 93-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease, was suffocated with a scarf by her daughter, who had been acting as her caregiver, at the family home in San Giovanni Valdarno (Arezzo) on the night of 8-9 March 2025. The suspect contacted police herself immediately afterward and confessed. Prosecutors sought a 12-year sentence, but the Court of Assizes of Arezzo acquitted her, finding that severe stress from the burden of caregiving had left her incapable of understanding or controlling her actions at the time.
- Homicide in waterford, IE
· On trial · 2 sources
A 47-year-old woman was found unresponsive at her partner's house on O'Brien Street in Waterford city on the morning of 25 January 2025 and was pronounced dead a short time later. The State Pathologist gave the cause of death as blunt force traumatic injuries to the head and abdomen, and told the trial she had found extensive external and internal injuries whose overall pattern was consistent with a sustained assault, including bruising around both eyes consistent with direct trauma such as a punch and neck injuries consistent with compression by a hand. A 35-year-old man is on trial for her murder at the Central Criminal Court. The prosecution case is that the injuries were the result of a violent assault; the defence contends that she sustained them accidentally in falls after drinking. The trial opened on 9 July 2026 before a jury of five men and seven women, and the jury began its deliberations on 27 July 2026 after the judge completed his charge.
- Homicide in den dolder, NL
· Convicted · 4 sources
A 76-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Den Dolder on 2 January 2025. She was attacked without warning in the street in broad daylight, on her way home, and was stabbed seventeen times. The man responsible, then 29, was at the time required to stay at a psychiatric clinic in the town following a series of assaults, and was on leave on the day of the attack. On 22 July 2026 the district court in Utrecht convicted him and imposed eight years' imprisonment together with tbs, compulsory psychiatric treatment — a heavier sentence than the six years and tbs the prosecution had demanded. The court found the killing premeditated: he had bought a knife several days beforehand and hidden it under a small bridge, and had made repeated online searches about killing someone and about the sentence murder carries. He was assessed as only partially criminally responsible.