News round up: Police search cellar at Jersey care home

Bricked-up cellar found at Jersey care home
Police excavating the Jersey care home where a child’s remains were found discovered a subterranean chamber yesterday which tallied with victims’ accounts of an underground punishment room.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Cash aid to help grandparents care for children in drug-risk families
Grandparents are to be given financial support and legal backing to make it easier for them to take over the care of children with parents who are problem drug users, under government plans revealed yesterday.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Wider schools divide linked to higher rates of violent crime
Teenagers are more likely to be convicted of violent crimes and racially motivated offences in areas which have sharp educational divides, according to research.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Darling in pre-budget talks as child poverty target slips
The chancellor, Alistair Darling, is holding urgent pre-budget talks with the prime minister and senior cabinet colleagues in a last-ditch push to use the March 12 budget to meet the government’s target of halving child poverty by 2010.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Youths turn to aggressive dogs as the weapon for street status
Gangs of youths in cities throughout the country are starting to use aggressive dogs instead of knives and guns to defend their territory. 

Read more on this story in The Times today

Jack Straw scraps reform of prostitute law to avoid prison officer strike
Jack Straw dropped measures to overhaul the law on prostitution yesterday to ensure that a Bill that prevents prison officers from striking is law by May.

Read more this story in The Times today

New Deal problems
Almost half the unemployed who find work are back on jobseeker’s allowance within six months, a report by the Public Accounts Committee says.

Read more on this story in The Times today

The ‘dungeon of torture’ in Jersey begins to give up its horrific secrets as police probe new cellar
The full horror of what may lie beneath the “Colditz” care home began to emerge last night as police uncovered a double dungeon where children were said to be taken for torture.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail today

Now Portsmouth children’s home faces renewed abuse investigation

Police have reopened an investigation into allegations of abuse at a Portsmouth children’s home after fresh allegations were made in the light of the Jersey inquiry.

Read more on this story in The Daily Express today

Anti-smoking drug linked to suicides given NHS approval
The anti-smoking drug Champix should be offered to smokers who want to kick the habit despite fears that it is linked to suicides, according to the Government’s health watchdog.

Read more on this story in The Independent today

Jersey children’s home hell: Victims of Haut de la Garenne tell their story
A woman who spent her early teens at the Jersey children’s home yesterday told how she used to be drugged, beaten and sexually abused there.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mirror today