Age of consent largely ignored
Nearly a third of young people have sexual intercourse before they reach 16, the age of consent, a study suggests (Alexandra Frean writes).
In a survey of more than 19,000 16 to 24-year-olds, 38 per cent of those questioned said that they did not always use a condom with a new partner. The survey was part of the BareAll06 safer sex campaign, involving the BBC, MTV and Durex, and supported by the Government.
Bank details sold
Bank account details of thousands of computer users in Britain are being sold in Nigeria for less than £20 each. The BBC One programme Real Story discovered that fraudsters in Lagos are using personal information on the hard drives of second-hand PCs that have been exported for recycling.
Sea victim named
A 67-year-old man who died after he was swept overboard from a yacht in the North Sea has been named as Adrian Piggford, from Waltham, Lincolnshire. He was returning from a trip to the Netherlands with three other men when their vessel was caught in a gale on Saturday. The others were rescued.
Shock video fine
A school bus driver sent a 12-year-old girl a mobile phone video message of a man being beheaded. The girl was “shocked and upset” after receiving the graphic image from John Stoneman, 39, Yeovil Magistrates’ Court was told. He received a suspended six-month jail sentence and must pay £50 compensation.
Boy missing
A teenage boy was feared drowned after he fell into a waterfall in Snowdonia. The 15-year-old boy, believed to be from North Wales, fell into the River Llugwy near Capel Curig and disappeared immediately. Rescue teams found a young man’s body, but it has not been formally identified.
Murder charge
A 21-year-old man appeared in court charged with murdering a baby aged six months. Sherwain McCoy Smith, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody by Birmingham Magistrates’ Court. The body of Troy Simpson was found 300 yards from his home in Smethwick in February.
Cameron visit
David Cameron will make his first significant overseas trip next month with a four-day visit to India. He will open a factory near Bombay for JCB, the construction company, whose chairman is Sir Anthony Bamford, a Tory party donor. Aides said that Mr Cameron would make a speech on the global economy.
Man stabbed wife 55 times
A man stabbed his wife 55 times with a kitchen knife before killing himself by setting fire to his car (Nicola Woolcock writes).
Nachatar Punni’s body was found in the burnt-out Ford Mondeo outside the family home in Gravesend, Kent, on Sunday after neighbours raised the alarm. The body of his wife, Sanambir, who was in her late thirties, was in the house. The couple had a teenage son and daughter.
Campsite blaze
A former RAF aircrew worker has been hailed a hero for saving his family and 30 others when he put out a blaze at a campsite in Paris. Kenny Pearce, 42, a father of two from Bournemouth, was woken by the sound of aerosol cans exploding in a tent near by. A Dutch couple suffered serious burns.
‘Too white’ regret
The BBC’s new £90,000-a-year “diversity czar” has expressed her regret after complaining that she was tired of seeing too many white journalists reporting from non-white nations. Mary Fitzpatrick, who is in her 40s, sent an e-mail to all BBC news staff praising the corporation’s correspondents.
Police apology
Police in Northern Ireland apologised to an IRA murder victim’s family after a new report revealed that it took them 20 years to carry out a proper investigation. Jean McConville, a mother of ten, was abducted in West Belfast in 1972. Evidence that she was alive weeks later was found by the Police Ombudsman.
Lives ‘at risk’
Union leaders have given a warning that a decision by Southampton General Hospital to make 78 medical secretaries redundant and transfer their work to South Africa could put lives at risk. A spokesman for the trust said the outsourcing, started a year ago, had led to an improved service for patients and GPs.
Hard to swallow
The Chancellor is being urged to drop VAT from sales of healthy fruit drinks. Innocent Drinks, which makes smoothies, says that the tax rules are wrong because the drinks count as part of the Government’s recommended five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables and yet are taxed as if they were chocolate.
Power trip
A squirrel cut the power to more than 10,000 homes in Exeter after mistaking a wooden electricity post for a tree. Western Power Distribution said that the squirrel had climbed to the top of the cable-carrying post “and got a nasty shock”. It took engineers an hour to restore power.
Climate change disasters to rise
Forest fires, droughts and flooding will become more frequent in the next 200 years as temperatures rise through global warming, an analysis of climate models suggests (Mark Henderson writes).
Scientists based at the University of Bristol have found that severe effects of climate change are likely even if greenhouse gas emissions were to stop now, because the world is already destined for significant warming. Droughts were found to be likely in West Africa, Central America, southern Europe and the eastern United States. Regions of Africa and South America will be at risk of flooding linked to the loss of trees.
Marko Scholze, who led the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. said: “We show the steeply increasing risks associated with higher warming levels.”
Violence concern
Nearly a million children in Britain are suffering emotional damage by witnessing violence between parents or carers. Behind Closed Doors, a study backed by the UN and Body Shop International, says that even when children are not harmed physically, there is long-term trauma, and schoolwork can be affected.
House prices slow
Annual house price growth slowed to 5.2 per cent in June, according to official figures. House prices rose by 0.4 per cent between May and June to an average of £190,883, the Department for Communities and Local Government said. Prices in London slowed the most, from 7 per cent annual growth to 5.8 per cent.
Bike boy killed
Daniel Fox, 13, died and a 12-year-old friend was in a coma after they were thrown off a bicycle they were riding down a hill in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One of the boys was on the crossbar when they hit a kerb. Daniel was pronounced dead soon afterwards. The other boy suffered serious head injuries.
Cut-price beer call
Pubs have asked the Competition Commission to examine cut-price beer offers in supermarkets. The British Beer and Pub Association wants shops to follow the lead set by landlords, who claim to have largely stopped big price promotions on alcohol after concerns over heavy drinking among young people.