19 February – The BAFTA awards take place in London.
22 February
Securitas depot robbery: around £53 million (US$92 million) is stolen from a Securitas depot at Tonbridge, Kent, in the largest cash robbery in British crime history.
The Prince of Wales's court case continues in the High Court against The Mail on Sunday as he tries to prevent the publication of his journals. Various revelations have been made such as that he considers himself to be a dissident, and his opinion of government officials in the People's Republic of China whom he described as "appalling old waxworks".
13 March – Six men taking part in a clinical trial for a new anti-inflammatory drug TGN1412 are placed in intensive care, some in a life-threatening condition, after suffering adverse side effects.[1]
20 March – The British Press Awards are held at The Dorchester, Park Lane, London, but boycotted by some national newspapers.
21 March – Labour's hopes of a fourth successive term in office at the next general election (by which time Tony Blair says he will have resigned as prime minister) are given a boost when an Ipsos MORI opinion poll puts them eleven points ahead of the Conservatives on 42%.
7 April – Mr Justice Peter Smith delivers judgment in the copyright case over The Da Vinci Code finding that Dan Brown had not breached the copyright of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. The judgment itself contains a coded message on the whim of the judge.[4]
18 April – Peugeot announces plans to close the 60-year-old car factory at Ryton near Coventry, which it bought from Chrysler in 1979, within the next year.
18 May – Kiyan Prince, a 15-year-old boy and talented footballer, is stabbed to death in Edgware, London, while trying to break up a fight. His murderer, Hannad Hasan, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey in 2007.
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, rejects calls from families of murder victims for all convicted murderers to be sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison.[9]
England advance to the World Cup quarter-finals for the second tournament in succession by beating Ecuador 1–0 with a goal from captain David Beckham.
30 June – Three men are convicted of plotting the execution-style murders of a middle-aged couple, John and Joan Stirland, at their home in Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire, in 2004. The killings were in revenge for a murder committed by Joan Stirland's son in Nottingham in 2003. Five other men were cleared of conspiracy to murder following the trial at Birmingham Crown Court.[11]
July
July – The European heat wave affects the UK, resulting in July 1983's record for the hottest month in the CET series being beaten with a mean monthly CET of 19.7 °C or 67.5 °F.[12]
1 July – England's World Cup campaign ends in the quarter-finals when they lose on penalties to Portugal after a goalless draw.[13]
25 September – Copmanthorpe rail crash: One man dies when the 14:25 from Plymouth to Edinburgh operated by Virgin CrossCountry hits a car at about 20:55.
October
1 October – Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 comes into effect, requiring a Fire Risk Assessment for all non-domestic premises in England and Wales.
5 October – Rt. Hon.Elish Angiolini, QC, appointed as Lord Advocate in Scotland. She is the first woman and the first solicitor to be appointed to the post.
13 October: European Home Retail plc and its subsidiary Farepak go into administration, leaving tens of thousands of people out of pocket for Christmas 2006.
5 November – 53-year-old Ronald Castree is arrested in connection with the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed in 1975. Stefan Kiszko had spent 16 years in jail for the crime before his conviction was quashed in 1992. Castree would be convicted of the crime in November 2007.
7 November – Dhiren Barot is sentenced to life imprisonment for plotting large scale terrorist attacks in Britain and abroad. The Court of Appeal noted that Barot's "businesslike" plans would have caused carnage on a "colossal and unprecedented scale" if they had been successful.
8 November – Three men of Pakistani origin sentenced to life imprisonment for the racist murder of Kriss Donald in Glasgow.
13 November – The legendary racehorse Desert Orchid dies aged 27 at Newmarket.
19 November – Home Secretary John Reid attacks the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown for being "presumptuous" and "disloyal" for openly campaigning to replace Tony Blair as Prime Minister.
2 December – A young woman's body is found in a brook near Ipswich; her death is initially treated as "unexplained".[24]
4 December – The woman whose corpse was found in Ipswich two days ago is identified as Gemma Adams, a 25-year-old local prostitute. Her death is reported to be suspicious and police launch a murder inquiry. There are also concerns about another Ipswich prostitute, 19-year-old Tania Nicol, who went missing on 30 October.[25]
8 December – The body of missing Ipswich prostitute Tania Nicol is found on the outskirts of the town.[26]
9 December – Police in Ipswich launch a murder investigation into the death of Tania Nicol and admit that it is likely she met her death at the hands of the same person or people who killed Gemma Adams.[27]
10 December – A third prostitute's body is found in the Ipswich area.[28]
14 December – Two more women are found dead in Ipswich and it is confirmed that both are prostitutes, meaning that the police are now investigating five murders.[29]
12 December – The Ryton car factory closes and Peugeot 206 production is transferred to Slovakia, several months ahead of the scheduled closure date. 2,300 jobs are lost.[30]
18 December – A man is arrested near Felixstowe on suspicion of murdering the five Ipswich prostitutes. He is named as Tom Stephens, a 37-year-old Tesco supermarket worker.[31]
_tijdens_persconferentie_in_bioscoop_D,_Bestanddeelnr_921-8847_(cropped).jpg)
_confers_with_Flight_Lieutenant_Walter_%27Farmer%27_Lawson_and_Flight_Sergeant_George_%27Grumpy_Unwin_at_Fowlmere_near_Duxford,_September_1940._CH1366.jpg)
