David Harper was a trusted volunteer who abused two young boys and sent pictures boasting of his vile acts to a paedophile in America.

Social workers are exaggerating the needs of elderly people in order to obtain care for them because so many councils are tightening their eligibility criteria, a survey shows.

{mosimage}Of the 300 social workers surveyed by Community Care magazine, 34 per cent said they would be prepared to bend the rules as part of the assessment process to ensure elderly people met the right thresholds for receiving services.

Two thirds were concerned that they would be disciplined further down the line for “lying” but would still go ahead. The survey also found that 67 per cent said their council had tightened eligibility criteria in order to make swingeing cuts in their fast-dwindling budgets.

More than a quarter of social workers had been put under pressure by their managers to assess fewer people as being eligible for services, while more than half had been asked to assess existing clients as no longer eligible.

The findings come as an increasing number of councils forecast budget difficulties in adult services over the coming three years following the Comprehensive Spending Review settlement last month.

A nurse has admitted that she deliberately rammed her camper van into the front of a nursing home causing £26,000 worth of damage the day after being made redundant from her job there.

Police investigating allegations of child sex abuse carried out a series of raids in Hampshire this morning. Officers involved in Operation Crossbow targeted 12 homes in the New Milton area, plus a property outside the county.

A former magistrate who says he was forced to resign because he would not place children for adoption with gay couples has lost his employment tribunal appeal.

Merseyside’s criminal justice system could be thrown into chaos as solicitors prepare to defy government reform of their pay scales.

A multi-million cash injection for a drugs rehabilitation programme in England has produced only a handful of success stories, it was revealed today.

Nurses will be asked to weigh patients weekly as part of a Government plan to stop the elderly starving to death in hospitals and care homes.

A massive £130 million funding boost for drug addiction treatment has led to only 70 more users quitting drugs – at a cost of almost £1.9 million each.

{mosimage}Spending on drug services in England rose by 50 per cent from £253 million in 2004-05 to £384 million last year, figures from the National Treatment Agency have revealed.

But over the same period the numbers leaving treatment programmes ‘clean’ – having successfully beaten their addictions – crept up by just 1.2 per cent from 5,759 to 5,829.

The figures have sparked fierce criticism, with opposition MPs demanding an urgent inquiry by independent spending watchdogs, and accusing ministers of “incompetence and distorted priorities”.

Critics claim the Government has focussed too much on getting greater numbers of addicts into treatment while paying little attention to the outcome of the expensive courses.

Last week there was outrage when it emerged that many treatment centres routinely offer addicts extra drugs – including heroin substitutes and anti-depressants – as a reward for providing drug-free urine samples.

Nurses caring for mental health patients will hold three more days of strikes in support of a suspended colleague.