Category Archives: Children

Lucy Letby likely to have harmed other babies, doctor tells inquiry

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Consultant who raised concerns says there could have been earlier victims she has not been convicted of killing

Lucy Letby was likely to have harmed more babies than those she has been convicted of murdering on a hospital neonatal unit, a senior doctor has told a public inquiry.

Dr Stephen Brearey, a consultant paediatrician who raised concerns about the nurse, told the Thirlwall inquiry he believed Letby “didn’t start becoming a killer” in June 2015 and that she may have had earlier victims.

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Public’s understanding of paedophiles has not improved, says charity boss

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Rev Harry Nigh, who set up Circles in 1994 to support sex offenders, says it is easy for politicians to say ‘lock them up’

Public understanding of paedophiles has not improved over the past 30 years, according to the founder of the pioneering charity Circles, which offers support to some of society’s most reviled offenders.

While the Rev Harry Nigh says child protection must always be paramount, he stresses the importance of breaking the isolation and shame that often leads people who commit child sexual abuse to reoffend, arguing that “anything that drives people underground even further endangers the community itself”.

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Call to ban cakes and biscuits at school lunchtimes in England

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Campaigners want ministers to overhaul rules to outlaw snacks that contain up to 12 teaspoons of sugar

Schools in England should be banned from giving pupils cakes or biscuits as part of their lunch because they contain so much sugar, food campaigners say.

They want ministers to overhaul the rules that guide schools on the nutritional content of the meals they serve to outlaw such sugary snacks.

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C of E may need to rethink archbishop of Canterbury role, senior cleric says

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Exclusive: Stephen Cottrell, archbishop of York, says church is in period of reflection after ‘unprecedented crisis’ over abuse cover-up

The Church of England may need to rethink the role of archbishop of Canterbury after its “unprecedented crisis” over an abuse cover-up, Justin Welby’s second-in-command has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, said he would welcome a woman taking over from Welby. But he warned that the responsibilities of the job may need to be shared more widely in future.

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X-rays show shrapnel and bullets buried in children caught in Sudan war

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Images released by MSF doctors highlight impact of conflict in the country, with medical supplies and aid unable to reach people due to fighting

A series of X-rays showing a piece of shrapnel buried deep inside a 20-month-old girl’s head and a bullet embedded in an 18-month-old boy’s chest are among images released by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealing the impact of the war in Sudan on children.

The two babies were treated at Khartoum’s Bashair teaching hospital.

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Keir Starmer says he wants ‘serious and pragmatic’ relationship with China – as it happened

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Prime minister says he wants to ‘be clear about issues we do not agree on’ after meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping at G20

Keir Starmer has held his bilateral with Xi Jinping in Rio at the G20, offering to meet his counterpart, the Chinese premier Li Qiang, in Beijing or London at the earliest opportunity.

But the PM also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on parliamentarians and the persecution of Hong Kong and British citizen Jimmy Lai.

A strong UK China relationship is important for both of our countries and for the broader international community.

The UK will be a predictable, consistent, sovereign actor committed to the rule of law.

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Starmer refuses to back Justin Welby after clamor for archbishop to resign

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Prime minister says victims of serial abuser John Smyth ‘failed very, very badly’

Keir Starmer has refused to back the archbishop of Canterbury, who has faced growing demands to resign over his handling of an abuse scandal.

Pressure on Justin Welby has been intensifying since the publication last week of a damning report on the church’s cover-up of John Smyth’s abuse in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later in Zimbabwe and South Africa. About 130 boys are believed to have been victims.

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Bishop calls for Justin Welby to resign over failure to pursue serial abuser

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Helen-Ann Hartley says archbishop’s position is untenable as members of Church of England’s ruling body launch petition

A Church of England bishop has added her voice to growing calls for the archbishop of Canterbury to resign over his failure to pursue a sadistic abuser of children when allegations were brought to his attention.

Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Justin Welby’s position was untenable and he should quit. A line needed to be drawn, she added.

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Child in Surrey dies after being struck by a branch that fell from a tree

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The incident happened in Banstead and was attended by police, the fire brigade and the London ambulance service

A child has died after being struck by a branch that fell from a tree in Surrey.

Emergency services were called to Grove Place near the junction with Carshalton Road, Banstead, shortly after 4pm on Saturday, the Metropolitan police said.

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Proportion of children in Great Britain with gambling problem has doubled, data reveals

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Gambling Commission figures show shock rise to 85,000 in number of young people suffering gambling harms

The proportion of young people in Great Britain with a gambling problem has more than doubled, according to “astonishing” official data that prompted calls for urgent government intervention.

New figures from the Gambling Commission, which regulates bookies, online casinos and the national lottery, revealed a shock rise, to 85,000, in the number of children classified as having a gambling problem under widely used diagnostic criteria.

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Severe drought puts nearly half a million children at risk in Amazon – report

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Warming climate has caused rivers used for transport to dry up, leaving children with little food, water or school access, says Unicef

Two years of severe drought in the Amazon rainforest have left nearly half a million children facing shortages of water and food or limited access to school, according to a UN report.

Scant rainfall and extreme heat driven by the climate crisis have caused rivers in what is usually the wettest region on Earth to retreat so much that they can no longer be traversed by boats, cutting off communities.

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Irish school abuse inquiry should cover ‘leathering’, survivors say

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Former pupils of Catholic schools say corporal punishment was ‘hourly occurence’ in 60s and 70s

The Irish government has been urged to extend the scope of a statutory inquiry into historical child abuse in schools to include corporal punishment, including a practice known as “leathering”.

Survivors of physical assault in Catholic schools have complained they were told there was no scope to include corporal punishment in an investigation into sexual abuse, announced in September.

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Scheme to boost French school trips to Britain ‘at risk’ under new UK entry rules

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Trade body for France’s travel industry reportedly writes to UK home secretary over concerns for programme’s future

A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK.

New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the then UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

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Comedian Joe Lycett says he has become father of a baby boy

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TV presenter praises and thanks staff at Birmingham women’s hospital for ‘exceptional’ care his partner received

The comedian Joe Lycett has announced he has become a father to a baby boy.

Lycett, 36, shared a picture on Instagram of him holding the infant, whom he said was born at Birmingham women’s hospital.

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Trans children’s charity told to rewrite guidance on puberty blockers

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Charity Commission investigation also said there had been mismanagement within Mermaids

A charity supporting gender-questioning young people has been told to rewrite its guidance about the risks of puberty blockers, after a two-year Charity Commission investigation, which also concluded that there had been mismanagement within the organisation.

However, the investigation found that the charity, Mermaids, had appropriate safeguarding policies in place and there was no evidence that it provided medical advice to children, which would have been outside its remit.

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Special educational needs bill in England hits record £10bn a year

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National Audit Office report finds no signs of improvement in lives of pupils despite record spending

The bill for special needs education in England has hit £10bn a year, with the number of children and young people entitled to government support in the form of education, health and care plans set to double to 1 million within a decade, a landmark report has found.

The investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that despite record levels of spending there had been no signs of improvement in the lives of children with special educational needs (SEN).

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Norway to increase minimum age limit on social media to 15 to protect children

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Prime minister wants young people to be shielded from ‘power of the algorithm’

Norway is to enforce a strict minimum age limit on social media of 15 as the government ramped up its campaign against tech companies it says are “pitted against small children’s brains”.

The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, conceded it would be “an uphill battle” but said politicians must intervene to protect children from the “power of the algorithms”.

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Surrogacy ring accused of exploiting vulnerable women in Argentina

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Prosecutors say ‘criminal enterprise’ charged foreign couples $50,000 and denied payments for miscarriages

An international surrogacy ring exploited impoverished women, denied payments for miscarriages, and “commercialised” babies in Argentina, prosecutors have alleged.

A team of prosecutors said they had discovered a “criminal enterprise” which has been charging foreign couples about $50,000 for a baby born by surrogacy in Argentina.

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Schools in Mexico have six months to ban junk food sales or face heavy fines

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Rules targeting fruit drinks, chips and artificial pork rinds come as UN calls child obesity in country an emergency

Schools in Mexico have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or face heavy fines, officials said on Monday, as authorities confront what they call the worst childhood obesity problem in the world.

The new rules target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican school kids: sugary fruit drinks, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chili.

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Ban smacking in England now, says children’s commissioner

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Rachel de Souza makes strongest intervention yet as three relatives go on trial for murder of Sara Sharif, the 10-year-old who allegedly suffered two years of abuse by her father

Ministers must ban smacking now, the children’s commissioner for England has said, in her strongest intervention yet on child safety.

Rachel de Souza said that banning smacking was “a necessary step” to keep children safe, and that bans in Scotland and Wales had “taught us we need to take that step in England too”, adding “now is the time to go further”.

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