Gareth Southgate insists England will head into Euro 2024 ready to handle the expectation that comes with being ranked one of the tournament favourites. The England boss and his players were pitted against Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia in Group C for next summer’s finals in Germany in Saturday night’s draw in Hamburg. Southgate has overseen a transformation of England’s fortunes since he took over in 2016, steering them to a first World Cup semi-final since 1990 at the 2018 tournament in Russia and a first-ever Euro final appearance in 2021. There were further signs of progress in December’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals and the side are firm favourites to take the final step and claim silverware, thanks in no small part to Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham and Bayern Munich sharpshooter Harry Kane. “They are used to playing in big matches and have produced regularly,” Southgate said. “They are used to playing in big matches together and individually, so we are excited and all looking forward to the summer. “We feel the squad has been building for a period of time and England are going to be competitive for the foreseeable future as you look at the young players coming through. When we started at St George’s Park it is what we wanted to happen. “If you are continually in those latter stages, most teams that win go close and then get there.” Denmark were England’s opponents in a tense semi-final at Euro 2020, when Kane scored from a penalty rebound after a spot-kick was controversially awarded for a foul on Raheem Sterling in extra time. But Southgate also well remembers a past encounter with Slovenia. England faced them in his second match in charge as interim manager in October 2016, a qualifier for the 2018 World Cup. England clung on for a point that day in a 0-0 draw, and Southgate saw it as a turning point in his England tenure. “Slovenia takes me back to one of my first games as manager where but for Joe Hart plucking out one of the best saves I’ve ever seen, I wouldn’t be standing here and I would probably still be a caretaker, but at something else,” he said. Serbia are the opponents in the Arena AufSchalke opener on June 16, before England take on Denmark at the Frankfurt Arena on June 20. England round off Group C against Slovenia at Cologne Stadium on June 25 at a tournament they intend to spend based in central Germany. UEFA provided a team base camp catalogue to teams, but the PA news agency understands the Football Association plans to stay at an unlisted venue. Weimarer Land in Blankenhain has been lined up – a remote spa and golf resort that has a 45-hole course and, most importantly, two training pitches. Final Football Association visits are planned at the venue that is around 90 minutes from host venue Leipzig and a 30-minute drive from the city of Erfurt. Asked about England finalising their team base and pre-tournament friendlies, Southgate told PA after the draw: “Today allows us to take those plans to the next stage. “Definitely the friendlies we’ve got an idea on dates, but we can now look at the opponents with more detail. “Similar with the base camp. We know now where our matches will be played, so we can start to cement those plans in the next few days.” Read More Dwight McNeil fires Everton to morale-boosting win at Nottingham Forest New faces but no complete reset – talking points as England take on West Indies Paul Heckingbottom stands by his work as Sheffield United lose again Neal Maupay makes the right impression on his manager Mikel Arteta heaps praise on players as Arsenal pull four points clear at summit Will Jacks looks at positives after England central contract snub

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Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen has made the bombshell claim that teenage best friends Libby German and Abby Williams were killed as part of a “ritualistic sacrifice” at the hands of a white nationalistcult. In sensational court documents, filed on Monday, attorneys for the 50-year-old accused killer claim that the brutal 2017 murders were carried out by members of a pagan Norse religion and white nationalist group called Odinists. “Members of a pagan Norse religion, called Odinism, hijacked by white nationalists,ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German,” state the documents, seen by The Independent. The nature of the crime scene pointed to the work of a cult from the get-go, according to the bombshell 135-page document which said it “resembled possible Odinism signatures left behind at the crime scene”. Libby and Abby’s bodies had both been staged with tree branches and sticks across their bodies in the shape of pagan symbols, the documents state. While his defence attorneys claim Mr Allen has no connection to any pagan cult, the bombshell documents also take the extraordinary step of naming four other individuals as potential suspects. None of the individuals have ever been named by law enforcement as suspects or persons of interest in the case and The Independent is not naming them. According to Mr Allen’s attorneys, law enforcement officials had explored possible links between the killings early on in the investigation – but then quickly “abandoned” the theory after speaking to an unidentified professor who refuted any possible link. But despite this, at least three law enforcement officers – former Rushville assistant police chief Todd Click and officers Kevin Murphy and Greg Ferency – continued to investigate a possible connection. By February 2018, Mr Allen’s attorneys say that “the evidence establishing the names of the likely murdering members of this Odinite cult became known to the Delphi investigative leadership”. The investigators connected two separate groups of men who practiced Odinism – one in Delphi and the other in Rushville – to each other and “then connected both groups of men to the murders”, the court documents state. The murders that rocked the close-knit community of Delphi have never been publicly linked to Odinism before now. On 13 February 2017, Libby and Abby headed along the Monon High Bridge Trail in their hometown. During the walk, Libby posted a photo of her best friend on Snapchat as they walked along the Monon High Bridge. Minutes later, Libby captured a video of a man – known as “bridge guy” – dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and a cap walking along the abandoned railroad bridge. In the footage – found on Libby’s phone following their murders – the man tells the two girls: “Guys, down the hill.” Later that day, the teenagers were reported missing when they failed to return to a spot where a family member was picking them up. The next day – Valentine’s Day 2017 – their bodies were discovered in a wooded area less than half a mile off the trail along the side of Deer Creek. In the new court documents, Mr Allen’s attorneys claim that there were “possible Odinism signatures left behind at the crime scene” including the staging of the bodies and branches displayed on the victims to create pagan symbols and shapes. Describing the scene as “ghoulish”, the documents also reveal never-before-known details about how Libby and Abby died. The teenage best friends both had their necks slashed, the documents reveal. Libby was found at the base of a tree with “four tree branches of varying sizes intentionally placed in a very specific and arranged pattern on her naked body” and blood spots and drippings all over her body. Abby meanwhile was fully clothed, including in Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans, the documents state. There was no blood on her clothing, indicating that she was likely murdered while naked and then dressed after she was killed. Tree branches and sticks had also been arranged on her body, the documents state. Both victims appeared to have been moved after they were murdered and positioned. “Richard Allen has zero connections to any pagan cult or pagan cultists, and furthermoreno forensic evidence (such as DNA) or electronic evidence links Richard Allen to the girls or tothe crime scene – i.e., he is a completely innocent man,” the defence attorneys write. As well as the claims that Odinism could be linked to the killings, Mr Allen’s attorneys have accused the prosecution of withholding this information from the defence – and that the possible ties only came to light because Mr Click reached out to the state in the wake of the arrest. The documents state that Mr Click was concerned that the probable cause affidavit laying out the case against Mr Allen was “far less compelling than the totality of the information” that they had gathered about the Odinism angle and so sent a letter to prosecutor Nick McCleland in May to ensure he was aware of that information. The state did not hand over this information or the letter until September, the defence states. The defence is also claiming that Odinists are working as corrections officers at Westville Correctional Facility where Mr Allen is being held awaiting trial – and where they claim he has suffered ill-treatment. Now, the defence is seeking a Franks hearing in the case and to have Mr Allen moved to another facility. The bombshell claims laid out in the new court documents mark the latest twist to the tragic case which began when two teenage best friends set off on a walk together one spring day in 2017. For more than five years, the girls’ devastated families waited for answers in the case as no arrests were made. Then, in late October 2022, Mr Allen – a local man who served the victims’ families in his job at the Delphi CVS store – was finally arrested and charged with their murders. According to investigators, Mr Allen is the so-called “bridge guy” captured on camera by the victims. The suspect forced the two victims down the hill and led them to the location where they were murdered, according to his probable cause affidavit. The criminal affidavit, which was partially redacted and released in November, previously revealed that the local man was finally tied to the February 2017 murders through a bullet found at the bloody crime scene. Ballistics confirmed that an unspent .40 caliber round found close to the bodies of the teenage victims came from Mr Allen’s Sig Sauer Model P226. The firearm – which he owned since 2011 – was found during a search of his home last October and both he and his wife Kathy told police he was the only person with access to it, the documents state. The documents also revealed that, in Libby’s cellphone footage, one of the victims mentions the word “gun” – suggesting that their attacker was armed with a firearm and was using it to coerce the victims. In a police interview on 13 October, Mr Allen told investigators he had “no explanation” as to how the spent bullet ended up near the bodies of the two teenage victims, the document states. The accused killer said he had “not been on the property where the unspent round was found, that he did not know the property owner, and that he had no explanation as to why a round cycled through his firearm would be at that location,” it says. The property owner – Ron Logan – was also previously tied to the case. He died in 2020. As well as the ballistics evidence, Mr Allen was also tied to the killings after his vehicle was spotted parked close to the trail in “an odd manner” as if to “conceal the license plate”, the affidavit previously revealed. Several witnesses also reported seeing a “creepy” man matching the description of “bridge guy” around the time of the murders while one person said they saw a “muddy and bloody” man leaving the trail around two hours after Libby and Abby were last seen alive. The witnesses did not see anyone other than “bridge guy” on the trail at the time, the affidavit reads. The married father to a daughter had been on law enforcement’s radar back in 2017 after he admitted to being on the trail the day the girls were killed. During a 2017 interview with police, Mr Allen confessed to being on the Monon High Bridge Trail that afternoon but denied any involvement in the murders and insisted he had never seen the two girls that day. Despite placing himself at the scene of the crime at the time of the murders, he slipped through the net due to a “clerical error”. Since his arrest, Mr Allen has confessed to the 2017 murders multiple times behind bars – including in a jailhouse phone call with his wife, dramatic court documents revealed back in June. While prosecutors say that the accused killer admitted “several times” that he carried out the brutal murders, Mr Allen’s attorneys claim that his confession cannot be believed due to his current mental state. The sudden arrest of the local man almost six years on from the murders marked a major break in the case. But the investigation is far from over with officials saying that they believe Mr Allen may not have acted alone. Prior to Mr Allen’s arrest, investigators had been searching for information about a catfishing account which was in contact with Libby on the day she was killed. The man behind the account – Kegan Anthony Kline – was tied to the 2017 murders in December 2021 when investigators urged the public to come forward with information about a bogus online profile named @anthony_shots. Kline, 28, confessed to using the fake profile to groom underage girls, get them to send him nude photos and their addresses, and try to get them to meet him in person. In a 2020 police interview, a transcript of which has been seen by The Independent, Kline admitted that he had communicated with 14-year-old Libby on Instagram and Snapchat through the catfishing profile before she died. The transcript revealed that he had exchanged photos with the teenage girl and that Libby had communicated with the fake profile on the very day that she and Abby were murdered. On 25 February 2017 - less than two weeks after the two girls were brutally killed – police carried out a search of Kline’s home in Peru. Kline has never been charged in connection to the murders. However, he told “The Murder Sheet” podcast in a jailhouse interview that he has information about the murders but that police “don’t want to hear anything I have to say”. In July, he was sentenced to more than four decades in prison on a string of child sexual abuse and child exploitation charges. Read More Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen ‘confessed to killing teenagers in jailhouse phone call with wife’ What we know about the Delphi murders of Abigail Williams and Libby German Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen seeks to toss key evidence from case

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