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The parents of a teenager with Down’s syndrome accused of a racist assault have called for changes in how the law deals with people with special needs.

Jamie Bauld, 19, who has a mental age of five, was told he could be charged with assaulting an Asian pupil at Motherwell College last September.

Fiona and Jim Bauld said that although the matter had now been dropped, the case should never have gone that far.

The Crown Office has apologised for any distress caused to the family.

The Baulds, from Cumbernauld, said they were first made aware of the incident on 4 September when someone from the college called to say Jamie had pushed another pupil, but the matter had been resolved and it was nothing to worry about.

But a few weeks later they received another call saying the police had become involved and an advert had been placed in the local newspaper calling for witnesses to a “racist assault” at the college.

A woman with the mental age of eight and living in council care was raped or sexually assaulted as many as 12 times yet her assailants were never brought to justice, a damning report concludes today.

It lambasts the Crown Office, police, social work and health professionals for failing to protect the woman and prosecute the three men, who carried out the attacks between 1999 and 2006, when the woman was 58-65.

The Mental Welfare Commission, which today publishes the report, Justice Denied, said despite several reports to police and referrals to procurators-fiscal, the men were never taken to court.

It adds that her case is far from unique, saying: “The circumstances which allowed Miss A to be sexually assaulted, repeatedly, without those who assaulted her being brought to justice, are ones which are common throughout Scotland.”