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Cab driver faces jail for rape

An unlicensed cab driver is facing a substantial prison sentence for raping a drunken woman passenger. After Mohamed Hacene-Chaouch, 46 and from Catford, was found guilty at the Old Bailey, Judge Wendy Joseph told the jury he had been accused of a similar offence before.

Hacene-Chaouch had been accused of attacking a drunken woman passenger in 2004 after picking her up in Soho, but was acquitted. Today he was found guilty of raping a professional woman in her 20s who had been celebrating a friend's birthday when she got lost in Soho in January this year.

She said she remembered being in the back of a car and being taken to a cashpoint.

She said she drifted in and out of consciousness but woke in the car outside her east London home with Hacene-Chaouch sexually assaulting her.

He denied he was touting for trade and any sexual assault on the woman.

Boy, 14, faces murder bid charge

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after another boy, also 14, was stabbed in south London, police said.

Officers were called to Dressington Avenue, near Catford, on Monday evening, where they found the teenage victim with serious injuries.

Youth workers who were nearby at the time of the incident rushed to the teenager to give him emergency first aid before the London Ambulance Service arrived on the scene.

The victim was taken to a south London hospital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.

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Looking back at Status Quo's career

Hello Quo! is a new documentary charting British rock band Status Quo's 50 years in the game.The band began life as The Spectres at Sedgehill Comprehensive School in Catford in 1962, before changing their name to Status Quo a few years later.

Two of the best-known members of Status Quo, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt talked to our Entertainment Correspondent Lucrezia Millarini.

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EastEnders actress admits murder

A former EastEnders actress has admitted murdering an 86-year-old woman for jewellery, which she later sold for just £61.

Karen Williamson, who was addicted to crack cocaine, battered Jean Jobson to death in the pensioner's home in Catford in February last year.

She had denied the charge and was due to stand trial, but today she changed her plea to guilty today and was sentenced to at least 24 years in prison.

Ronke Phillips reports.

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