Leicestershire Council and the respective Police force are appealing against a court decision to award compensation to a sex abuse victim. This appeal has been initiated following a criminal case that heard a convicted paedophile was housed, by professionals, close to the children’s home where the victim resided. In 2006, Martin Todd was sentenced for three-and-a-half years for 10 breaches of the Sexual Offence Prevention Order made against him. These orders being granted by a Judge following the conclusion of a sexual abuse criminal investigation and intended to prohibit convicted sex offenders from certain behaviours, minimising their ability to re-offend.

Ampleforth College was first established in 1802 as a co-educational Catholic school run by the Benedictine Monks from Ampleforth Abbey in the North Yorkshire Moors. The school became a Roman Catholic Boarding School in 1900 predominantly for boys from Catholic families. In 2002, the college began welcoming girls as students onto their campus.

Police Detectives have charged 30 men and one female for offences including Rape and trafficking of five children who were aged between 12 and 18 years old. The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2005 and 2012 and the offenders are due to appear before Kirklees Magistrates on 5th and 6th September 2018. Twelve of the 30 charged men have not been named for legal reasons, however, the police have charged them with “numerous offences in connection with the same investigation”.

​Monday the 30th July 2018 is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Human trafficking is a crime that exploits men, children and women of all ages for numerous purposes including forced labour and sex. Sadly, this takes place in every country in the world. It is estimated that 21 million people are victims of trafficking around the globe. One third of these people are children.

Ramsdens Solicitors are appealing for witnesses for the Kirklevington Detention Centre, Yarm, North Yorkshire, Medomsley Detention Centre, Consett, County Durham and Aldington Detention Centre, Kent. If you have any further information please contact Ramsdens' Child Abuse team.

Recently, Clover House in Halifax has been named as one of the worst care homes in the country. A Care Quality Commission report dated 22nd May 2018 rated Clover House as inadequate in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led categories. The home supports up to 39 residents with dementia or other mental health issues yet the CQC found that there were not enough staff, mealtimes were chaos, staff were maneuvering residents in an unsafe and inappropriate manner and alarm systems which are used to alert staff to any falls were not being used. The CQC found that residents were not getting the correct nutrition and hydration that they needed.

World Elder Abuse Awareness day on 15th June 2018 aims to raise awareness and prevent elder abuse. There is a growing population of elderly people especially as life expectancy increases. However elderly people can be vulnerable to abuse as they may be unable to defend themselves, have outlived other family members and are unable to speak out and seek help. Some may be suffering with Alzheimer’s or dementia and therefore may not be able to fully explain what is happening or may not be believed by others due to their condition.

This week has been Child Safety Awareness Week run by the Child Action Prevention Trust. Throughout the course of the week we have run a series of blogs focusing on child safety and how it can be enhanced. Risks to children exist in everyday life whether that be by way of accident, injury, exposure to content in social media or other online resource or more targeted harm in the form of physical or sexual violence.