Ed Howker

An emotional Sir Cliff Richard has welcomed his privacy case victory against the BBC. The singer was awarded an initial £210,000 in damages following their coverage of a police raid on his home. Sir Cliff was never arrested or charged, and his lawyers argued that he had suffered “profound” damage to his reputation. The BBC…

The former leader of Rochdale Council has been suspended from the Labour Party after a report from an inquiry into child sexual abuse said he lied when giving evidence. Richard Farnell continues to insist that he was not told about allegations of abuse spanning three decades at residential schools in the borough. But the Independent…

From the snow-bound Jaguar to people live tweeting their nightmare journeys – images of the great freeze have been flooding social media for the last few days. Ed Howker has been looking through some of the best.

Oxfam today admitted a further “serious error” over its handling of its staff’s conduct. The charity said it should never have rehired a former employee as a consultant in Ethiopia after he’d already been fired over sexual misconduct allegations in Haiti. They say that they “are still checking how this occurred”. And tonight, this programme…

There’s a warning for charities tonight from the International Development Secretary, who declared she would “not hesitate” to slash public funding to organisations which didn’t deploy robust safeguarding measures. Penny Mordaunt said Oxfam’s failure to deal properly with sex abuse allegations should serve as a “wake-up call” for the entire sector. And figures have emerged from…

: The Charity Commission has launched a full statutory inquiry into Oxfam following allegations of sexual misconduct among their staff in Haiti after its earthquake. But why did the Commission, the body that oversees our charities, not take concerns more seriously before now? Last night we revealed the frustration of Oxfam’s former head of safeguarding…

Oxfam’s deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence has resigned in the wake of a sex scandal allegations involving some of the charity’s staff She has said she is ‘ashamed’ of what had happened and apologised for the distress and harm caused to supporters. The International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt demanded that Oxfam bosses appear before her –…

The Church of England still needs to do ‘an enormous amount’ to better protect people from abuse. A senior member of the national safeguarding team has told a meeting of the General Synod that there is a need for culture change within the church. Survivors of abuse held a silent protest outside today’s meeting.

The release from prison of the rapist John Worboys has been put on hold, after lawyers representing two of his victims won the first step in a legal challenge. They were granted a stay on his release until a further hearing next month.

African leaders have demanded that Donald Trump apologise over his alleged use of a vulgar term to describe their nations. The Ghanaian president called the words he is said to have used “extremely unfortunate” and 54 African ambassadors to the United Nations condemned what they said were his “outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks”. The US…

A court has heard that a former football coach was a “predatory and determined” paedophile who engaged in systematic abuse of young boys. Barry Bennell, 63, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court via video-link today, accused of 48 counts of child sexual abuse.  

The former Crewe Alexandra youth coach Barry Bennell has admitted seven charges of child sex abuse. The 63-year-old ex-coach, who has now changed his name to Richard Jones, is still due to stand trial over alleged offences involving boys aged between eight and 15.

In 2009 taxi driver John Worboys was sent to prison for life after being found guilty on charges including one rape and five sexual assaults. In the years since his trial, dozens more women have come forward too, and officers feared that he could have drugged and attacked over 100 female passengers over 13-years as…

She’s been called the Palestinian Joan of Arc by some, a pawn of her activist family by others. Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi has been charged by the Israeli authorities with assaulting security forces, incitement and throwing stones. So what is the effect on children of growing up under occupation?

Two women and a man have been sentenced for enforced labour and exploitation offences – after a police investigation into nail bars across the country. Officers from five forces managed to uncover a human trafficking operation which forced young Vietnamese women to work in the nail bars with little or no pay. The judge described…