City analyst’s death

An open verdict was recorded on a City analyst who was found in his London flat three weeks after his death. Mark Clayton, 38, had been treated for depression and drugs and alcohol problems, but was not suicidal, Westminster Coroner’s Court was told. His death was not suspicious.

Football fans in more rail fights

Alcohol-fuelled violence by football fans using the railway increased by 10 per cent last season, police said. British Transport Police reported the “worrying” rise in incidents on trains and at stations across Britain. The total rose to 337, from 305 the previous season. Football-related arrests increased from 567 to 601 but football travel banning orders were secured against 122 troublemakers.

Family happy to be back in hut

Relatives came from as far away as Australia to mark the return to their family of a £30,000plus beach hut in Southwold, Suffolk. Michael Whitaker, 50, said he would have “regretted for ever” not buying back his great-grandfather’s hut.

Fire destroys tycoon’s home

Mark Griffiths, a property developer, was told that his mansion had burnt down while he and his family were on a cruise to New York. An electrical fault is thought to have started the fire in the house in Branksome, near Poole, Dorset.

Oldest working men’s club shuts

Britain’s oldest working men’s club, and the only one ever visited by the Queen, has closed after 146 years. Coventry Working Men’s Club has shut with debts of £26,000, blaming the smoking ban, the credit crunch and cheap supermarket drink.

NHS technology job share to drive up wage bill

A confectionery and soft drinks executive and the man in charge of programming the nation’s pensions have been appointed to take charge of the largest civilian IT project in the world, the Government has announced (David Rose writes).

The Department of Health has named Christine Connelly, formerly of Cadbury-Schweppes, and Martin Bellamy, of the Department for Work and Pensions, jointly to head the mammoth £12.4 billion overhaul of NHS computer systems, formerly the highest-paid job in Whitehall. As The Times reported in April, the previous head of the project, Richard Granger, earned £270,000 to £285,000 a year.

Mr Granger, the former director-general of NHS IT, resigned last year after five years. The Government has split his job into two – each advertised for around £200,000 – costing the taxpayer potentially 40 per cent more in managerial wage bills for the project.

The NHS National Programme for IT, designed to link 300 hospitals with thousands of GP surgeries, is running up to two years late in parts and has been repeatedly criticised by auditors, doctors and patients.



Embezzlement charges against SAS men dropped Bulford

Charges against six SAS men accused of conspiracy to defraud are to be dropped by the Army Prosecuting Authority.

Details of the case had been kept secret on the grounds that the men’s safety was at risk and that national security might be compromised.

However, in December last year, The Times, along with other newspapers, reported that six SAS soldiers had been charged with embezzling funds amounting to about £3,000 and faced courts martial over allegations that they siphoned money from a budget for military training in the jungles of Brunei and Borneo. Two of the six are known to be badged members of the SAS and the other four served with the special forces regiment in administrative and support roles.

The media were banned from reporting the case, and all hearings conducted by Mr Justice Blackett, the Judge Advocate General, at a court martial facility at Bulford, Wiltshire, were held in camera. With charges dropped, none of the details of the case will now be known.

Ban announced on 26 sport steroids

Twenty-six drugs used to improve sports performance and physical appearance are to be banned amid mounting concern at the number of young men using them (Richard Ford writes). The anabolic steroids and growth-promoting drugs to be banned will join almost 60 similar substances that are already Class C drugs. Dealing in anabolic steroids will attract a maximum sentence of 14 years.

The Government said that the long-term effects include sterility, acne, liver tumours and the growth of breasts in boys. “It can also make the testicles wither, which is probably not what the users want,” said Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs.

Drink-drive deaths

Deaths caused by drink-driving have fallen sharply to 460 last year from 560 the previous year, down by 18 per cent, although there was a 2 per cent rise in all drink-drive accidents. Ministers are considering giving police more powers on random breath testing, as well as reducing the legal drink-drive limit.



Scouts in bus crash

Ontario Eighteen members of a Scouts party from Britain visiting Canada were taken to hospital after their coach crashed head-on with an articulated lorry.

One girl aged 17 suffered serious injuries, complaining of spinal and chest pains, but was expected to make a full recovery.

The injured passengers were aged between 14 and 27 and came from a number of Scout troops in west Lancashire.

“We are very fortunate that we did not have a loss of life here,” said David Guilbault, a spokesman for the emergency services in Lindsay, Ontario. The accident happened after heavy rain and hail on a rural highway.

The injured Scouts were part of a 102-strong party who were due to fly home on Monday. They had spent a week climbing, sailing, shooting and hiking at the Haliburton Scout Reserve, north of Toronto.

Simon Carter, a spokesman for the Scout Association said: “Some of the young people sustained injuries. Fortunately none of them is life-threatening – they are cases of broken bones and shock.”

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