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A nurse appeared in court yesterday charged with murdering four elderly patients and the attempted murder of a fifth.

Fears of being falsely accused of harming children is the major factor preventing Scots from volunteering, and while 69% of adults consider working with children, only 5% actually do, a report claims today.

The chief executive of NHS 24 has quit less than two weeks after a sheriff ruled the death of a child could have been avoided.

An estimated 50 foreign care workers in Inverness may be forced to leave the country under threat of deportation following changes to national work permit rules.

Day centre staff at Scotland’s largest local authority are beginning a strike over pay and conditions.

A foster father who sexually abused three vulnerable girls in his care has been jailed for seven years.

{mosimage}Thomas Judge, 55, who was on the board of trustees of a fostering network, molested two of the victims at a yacht marina where he berthed a boat.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh said he had “perpetrated a prolonged course of sexual abuse of quite the most offensive kind”.

Lord Turnbull said the case involved an “almost immeasurable abuse of trust”.

He added: “Each of these children was given into your care on the premise that you would provide for them an environment in which their personal safety would be guaranteed and you would facilitate and nurture their emotional needs.”

But Lord Turnbull said Judge had instead “used them for sexual gratification and taken advantage of their vulnerability”.

First offender Judge, who was estimated to have fostered more than 100 children with his wife, had denied abusing the youngsters, but was earlier convicted after a trial.

Lord Turnbull said: “These proceedings have brought you before the courts for the first time in your life.

“As a man of your age, with otherwise a good character and an impressive history of employment, it is little wonder your family and friends remain supportive of you and find themselves unable to disbelieve your protestations of innocence.”