Federica De Caria

May 17, 2024 | thetimes.co.uk | Anthony Loyd |Federica De Caria

The Ukrainian drone crews kill Russian soldiers in different ways, and say different things as they do so. In the darkness of a summer night, the remote operators of the Vampire hexacopters follow a precise set of instructions before dropping their bombs on the enemy’s infantrymen. Yet when the kamikaze FPV drone teams kill, there is a heated rush of words as they send their explosives-packed craft hurtling down onto the Russian forces.

Mar 27, 2024 | shorturl.at | Paul Morgan-Bentley |Federica De Caria

It is just before dawn and I am one of dozens of staff arriving to start our shifts at HMP Bedford. Walking through the prison’s front door, I flash an ID to someone on reception and then carry on walking, straight through security. I pass a stack of trays — the kind used in airports for the x-ray baggage scanners — but no one is using them, and the prison’s scanner appears to be switched off.

Mar 27, 2024 | thetimes.co.uk | Paul Morgan-Bentley |Federica De Caria

It is just before dawn and I am one of dozens of staff arriving to start our shifts at HMP Bedford. Walking through the prison’s front door, I flash an ID to someone on reception and then carry on walking, straight through security. I pass a stack of trays — the kind used in airports for the x-ray baggage scanners — but no one is using them, and the prison’s scanner appears to be switched off.

Mar 27, 2024 | thetimes.com | Paul Morgan-Bentley |Federica De Caria

It is just before dawn and I am one of dozens of staff arriving to start our shifts at HMP Bedford. Walking through the prison’s front door, I flash an ID to someone on reception and then carry on walking, straight through security. I pass a stack of trays — the kind used in airports for the x-ray baggage scanners — but no one is using them, and the prison’s scanner appears to be switched off.

Mar 26, 2024 | thetimes.co.uk | Paul Morgan-Bentley |Federica De Caria

An urgent investigation has begun into prison security after an undercover journalist was hired at one of the country’s most dangerous jails and was then able to walk inside and interact with prisoners without security searches. Last month a Times reporter was hired by an agency to work at HMP Bedford amid a nationwide staffing shortage. On two out of eight days that he worked at the prison, there was no one manning the security scanners at the front entrance when he arrived for work.