Police are warning New Year's revellers to be on guard after it was revealed that sex attacks by unlicensed minicab drivers in central London are rocketing to more than a 1000 a year.

New Year is regarded as a problem period as there will undoubtedly be vulnerable women who may have drunk too much and who cannot find, or cannot afford, a licensed cab. The recent 30% hike in black cab fares, are also reckoned to be forcing more women to use unlicensed cabs.

The new statistics reveal that there have been 150 recorded rapes and sexual assaults by minicab drivers this year, compared to 66 four years ago. Police believe that the true figure is probably up to 10 times greater due to the 'serious under reporting' of such assaults.

Drivers target their victims as they leave nightclubs, pubs, and restaurants and use a range of techniques to trap them. One woman was offered a bacardi and coke, which police believe was spiked, as she sat in the taxi. Some men offer free journeys in return for sex.

On one police operation more than half the minicab drivers stopped in London in a series of roadside checks had criminal records. Some had convictions for serious sex and assault offences while others were armed with knives and baseball bats.

Police warn that women should never take a mini cab alone.

Hundreds of homeless people are settling into a massive warehouse which houses a Christmas shelter run by the charity Crisis. The huge, heated building in east London, one of a network of five shelters across the capital, will house up to 1,000 homeless and vulnerable people for the last week of the year. A range of services, including chiropody, dentistry, hairdressing and medical help, will be on offer to those visiting the shelters.

Three people have been convicted of the murder of a Tower Hamlets man. On April 1 34-yr-old Shiblu Rahman was stabbed to death in Bow. At the Old Bailey on November 23 2001, a jury returned verdicts on four men and one woman who had been charged in connection with the case.

Dean COX, 23 years, unemployed and no fixed abode, was found Not Guilty of murder, manslaughter, assault grievous bodily harm and violent disorder.

Stephen Hansen aged 17 years was found Guilty of murder and Terry Cooper, aged 18 years (but 17 years when charged) was found Not Guilty of murder and Guilty of manslaughter. Ian Devlin, aged 17 years, was found Not Guilty of murder and Guilty of manslaughter and Guilty of perverting the course of justice.

The woman Terri Porter, aged 19 years, was found not Guilty of perverting the course of justice Hansen was sentenced to Life with a recommendation that he serve at least 13 years imprisonment; Cooper and Devlin were sentenced to 9 years imprisonment; Devlin was also sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for 'perverting the course of justice', to run concurrently.

On the day of the verdicts, DCI Brian Sweeting said: "Officers worked long and hard on what was a difficult and harrowing inquiry. This was a particularly horrendous crime made worse by the fact that the motive was racial. "I wish to pay tribute to the inquiry team and those officers who arrived at the murder scene within four minutes of the first call that night.

Their quick actions and professionalism in preserving evidence at what was a very confusing and distressing scene went a long way to securing the convictions. "We understand the family's sense of grief and our feelings are with them at this time. "The MPS is committed to dealing robustly with crimes of a racist nature. If any further information comes to light we will pursue it vigorously."

Ch. Supt. Rose Fitzpatrick (Borough Cmdr for Tower Hamlets) said: "The murder of Mr Shiblu Rahman was brutal and shocking. It had a devastating effect on his family, the local community and those of us who work hard to make Tower Hamlets a safe place in which to live and work.

"Our thoughts and sympathies are with Mr Rahman's family, particularly at this difficult time. The trial has forced them to re-live the horror of that night in April and I hope that the outcome at court provides them with some solace. "Officers from the Serious Crime Group (East) worked tirelessly to bring the right people to justice and I must pay tribute to their professionalism and dedication.

If the first officers on scene that night had not arrived so quickly, vital evidence would have been lost and we would not have secured today's convictions. "I would like to reassure Mr Rahman's family and our local community in Tower Hamlets that we take the issue of racism extremely seriously.

We work hard in a multi-agency approach with the community and our partners to target race crime and are involved in a number of positive initiatives. "These include a race crime project which involves high visibility patrolling; regular site visits to potential problem areas; a pro-active schools involvement officer programme; police surgeries in local halls aimed at encouraging members of the community to come forward and report crime.

"We also have a Community Safety Unit with a dedicated team of officers working on this particular area of crime. "All of this work underlines our strong commitment to tackling race crime and making Tower Hamlets a safer place for all the people we serve."

Primary schools in the borough of Tower Hamlets are improving faster than anywhere else in the country.Osmani Primary School in Whitechapel is the most improved school in England. The school topped the most improved list in the Government's performance league tables for Key Stage 2 tests taken by 11-year-olds (year 6) last summer.

There were four other Tower Hamlets schools in the most improved top 100 - Redlands Primary in Stepney, St Paul's with St Luke's CofE Primary in Poplar, Blue Gate Fields Primary in Wapping and Arnhem Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. In the last three years, year 6 pupils in the borough have improved their performance by 21 points, from 5 per cent to 72 per cent in English, a 24 point rise to 75 per cent in maths and 29 points to 85 per cent in science.

Director of education Christine Gilbert said the results are a credit to the hard work of teachers and pupils, successfully adapting national literacy and numeracy strategies and putting them into action in the classroom. At Osmani Primary School, which attracted a mass of coverage in the national press and on TV, head teacher Judy Grylls told East End Life: "I am delighted for the children and staff that all their hard work has been recognised".

The school has a high proportion of pupils for whom English is not their first language. Many children speak in their mother tongue only when they first join the school. Mrs Grylls said that commitment and hard work by staff and families is key to success, along with the support of the local education authority (LEA), and detailed understanding individual pupils' needs.

An American crime novelist is claiming she has solved the riddle of infamous Tower Hamlets murderer Jack the Ripper and named him as an artist who painted images of a murdered prostitute. Best-selling writer Patricia Cornwell spent almost £3 million on her hunt for the true identity of the east end slayer.

She now says she believes the Ripper was not a surgeon or a member of the royal family but Walter Richard Sickert, an important Impressionist artist who painted the series of gruesome pictures 20 years after the deaths. She told American TV's Primetime: "I do believe 100% that Walter Richard Sickert committed those serial crimes, that he is the Whitechapel murderer."

Cornwell, 45, spent part of her fortune on the hunt, buying Sickert's paintings, and then using them in the hunt for vital clues. She even flew a team of American forensic experts to London to the infamous Ripper letters for DNA, and bought 30 of the artist's works, ripping one of them up completely for scientific purposes. Sickert, who was born in 1860, was an apprentice to Whistler and worked with Degas and is regarded as a key link between British art and the growth of Impressionism.

But Cornwell claims he led a secret double life as a serial killer - and the five prostitutes named as Jack the Ripper's victims were only a few of the women that he had killed. They were horrifically mutilated and all but Kelly were murdered on the street but their killer - who taunted police in letters signed "Jack the Ripper" - was never found, prompting one of history's greatest murder mysteries.

Cornwell said a series of clues and her knowledge of forensic science and the mind of serial killers had led her to Sickert. Sickert was 28 when the killings started; an age Cornwell said was typical for serial killers to start their sprees between the age of 25 and 30.

In a converted parish hall on a council estate in Tower Hamlets, a community of skate-boarding, hip hop loving monks from the States devote each day to prayer and helping those in need. Their main aim is to in some small way to bring the people of east London closer to God.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal established St Fidelis Friary, under the direction of Father Richard; in London last summer- a New York based Catholic order monks. They call themselves "mobile monks", helping deprived communities in the areas that they live. Their grey habits, shaved heads and long beards mean they stand out from the usual inhabitants of East London.

In New York the attitude towards them was respectful, even amongst the hard-nosed crack dealers. But here they have been surprised by some of the hostility. "The very first day we were here we had eggs thrown at us and shortly after that rocks thrown at us by the local kids," says Father Richard.

The focus of their work is the daily soup kitchen providing a free lunch for the poor people of the neighbourhood. It mainly attracts the homeless and those with substance abuse problems. For the friars, helping these people goes beyond mere duty. Brother Nicholas says: "My heart goes out to someone in that situation. They're human beings yet they don't see it themselves - that they're worth anything - and I consider them as my friends."

Scotland Yard came out in force this week when they targeted 18 of Tower Hamlets' most prolific suppliers of class A drugs.

The initiative smashed a multi-million pound drug operation run by a highly organised Asian gang in the East End.

During the operation, tagged Emu, 175 officers raided multiple homes in the Bethnal Green area just after 6am on Monday morning. The gang who are aged 18-25 are believed to have made hundreds of deals every day running supplies of heroin and crack throughout the borough.

Det Insp Keith Surtees said: "This is a 24-hour seven-day drug dealing gang which is hierarchical in its nature and has a highly organised method of operation. It is supplying large amounts of heroin and crack cocaine in East London. Individuals in this well established gang can make five big deals in 10 minutes."

Tower Hamlets has been described as the heroin capital of the country by local MP Oona King when she claimed that crack could be bought for less than the price of a bag of sweets.

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