Ed Barnard misses out on a century but Worcestershire amass 421 before taking three Derbyshire wickets at New Road.

Ben Slater's fourth half-century of the season helps Nottinghamshire's reply with the bat against Warwickshire.

Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt were stabbed by Usman Khan less than a year after he left prison.

Eight people will stand trial following an investigation by Staffordshire Police.

Championship side Coventry City's transfer embargo is lifted by the English Football League.

Express and Star

The Express and Star has these headlines today:

• Only five per cent of rape cases in West Midlands end in court, external
• Gardener jailed over shoddy and uncompleted work, external
• Driver caught hiding in bin after ramming police car with stolen Audi, external

Matthew Dale was found lying in a pool of blood after he was stabbed in Stoke-on-Trent last year.

Birmingham City agree to cancel Mikel San Jose's contract with the Championship club a year early by mutual consent.

Coventry Live

Some of the headlines from Coventry Live today include:

• Another supercar seized in Coventry by eagle eyed officers, external
• One of Nuneaton's oldest club's set to reopen this weekend, external
• CCTV captures thieves breaking into canal society site, external

Aston Villa confirm the departures of out-of-contract trio Tom Heaton, Ahmed Elmohamady and Neil Taylor.

Chester Zoo says a £100m government fund for zoos which is closing was "too difficult to apply for".

The eastern branch of the planned high speed rail network will be completed, the transport secretary says.

Panashe Bako, 20, died after being stabbed at the Crowne Plaza in Birmingham, on 22 July 2020.

Carl Moorhouse was fatally stabbed in a disturbance in Warwickshire in May last year.

Greig Watson
Reporter, BBC News Online

A man who groomed a 13-year-old girl and then met her for sex has been jailed for four and a half years.

David Beesley, 30, posed as a 19-year-old when he contacted the girl via social media in 2019.

After exchanging a series of explicit messages, he drove from his home in Proffitt Avenue, Coventry, to the girl's home near Leicester to meet up.

He then returned the next day to have sex.

Image source, Leicestershire Police

The girl told her family in December 2019 and Beesley was subsequently arrested.

Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to 10 charges including five counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15.

After the sentencing at Leicester Crown Court today, Det Con Matt Gibson said: "I am pleased that the victim in this case has not had to recount what happened in front of a jury and that Beesley accepted a degree of responsibility for his actions by admitting his crimes."

An arrest has been made over an armed robbery in Nuneaton in January.

A man went into a shop in Abbey Gate Shopping Precinct on 6 January, threatened staff with a small gun and stole cash, police said. , external

Armed police arrested a 47-year-old man from Nuneaton on Friday morning in the Camp Hill area of the town.

He was arrested on suspicion of the robbery and on suspicion of theft of a car from the car park at George Eliot Hospital on 31 March.

Cheshire host Cumbria at Didsbury Cricket Club in the National Counties Trophy - listen to BBC Radio Cumbria commentary.

Two of the groups which control Herefordshire Council have strengthened their alliance by combining to form a new political group.

Herefordshire Independents and It's Our County will now be known as Independents for Herefordshire.

The two parties formed a coalition with the Green Party after the elections in 2019 to run the authority.

Image source, Google

Councillor John Harrington will chair the new group and described it as "practical and progressive".

He said they will work together to fight the next council elections in two years time.

David Pittam
BBC News Online

One of Britain's "most wanted fugitives" who was on the run for nearly eight years has been given more jail time.

Mark Liscott, 60, was part of a gang of drug traffickers who smuggled £25m worth of cannabis into the Midlands.

He was jailed in 2005 but fled after being released on licence in 2012.

Nottinghamshire Police said Liscott was one of Britain's most wanted fugitives when he was arrested in Amsterdam last June.

Image source, Nottinghamshire Police

Police said Liscott tried to escape capture by jumping across neighbouring balconies while carrying about 18,000 euros (£15,438) in cash.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on 19 May, Liscott, of no fixed abode, was jailed for a further six years for conspiracy to supply class B drugs and being concerned in the making of an offer to supply class B drugs.

Liscott is originally from Birmingham but has links with organised crime groups in Nottingham and London, police said.