Plans to lock up more mental patients are in disarray after the Government suffered a series of humiliating defeats in the House of Lords. Tories, Liberal Democrats and Labour rebels combined to vote down what they called “draconian” measures to keep those with personality disorders off the streets.

{mosimage}The defeats threw into turmoil an eight-year campaign to reform mental health legislation, which is blamed for setting disturbed people loose on the streets to kill.

Official figures show that a murder is committed every week by mental patients released into the community.

But current laws do not allow those with severe personality disorders to be detained unless they have previously committed a crime.

The NHS is paying drug companies hundreds of millions of pounds too much for branded medicines, according to the Office of Fair Trading. Since September 2005, the competition watchdog has been investigating the system by which the Department of Health buys £7bn of branded medicines.

A further 2000 West Midland nurses could face unemployment when they qualify in April because of hospital debts, a leading nursing body has warned. The region’s Strategic Health Authority has insisted its NHS Trusts are on course to break even this year, but latest reports claim that West Midland hospitals are £73 million in the red.

Dozens of Irish prisoners in England and Wales who were in detention centres facing deportation are to be released in the next week after the government announced they would be exempted from the drive to send foreign national prisoners home. The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said Irish prisoners were to be treated as a “special case” and would only be sent back to Ireland in exceptional circumstances or where a judge had ordered their deportation following a criminal conviction.

A man described as a ‘loner’ was being questioned last night over a series of letter bomb attacks which have left nine people injured.

{mosimage}Miles Cooper, a 26-year-old school caretaker who does not drive, was arrested at his home near Cambridge early yesterday on suspicion of sending seven letter bombs in the past month, several to the offices of companies with links to traffic regulation enforcement.

Former schoolfriends of Cooper recall him as a shy, awkward boy

Cooper, described by his uncle as “a lonely boy most of his life”, had been under surveillance for some time at the terrace house in the village of Cherry Hinton, where he has lived with his mother and sister all his life. Police sources confirmed the arrest was linked to all seven bombs, which were sent in A5 Jiffy bags, some containing glass and at least one with a Cambridge postmark.

Five of the parcels actually exploded, causing minor injuries, and it is believed that others may have been intercepted by postal staff alerted by police warnings.

A generation of very young girls is being psychologically damaged by inappropriate “sexy” clothing, toys and images in the media that are corrupting childhood, leading psychologists warn today.

The majority of inmates at Hindley Prison have below-average IQ, according to a new study. Research found the average IQ of prisoners at Hindley is 87.11, compared with 100 in the general population.

A Calderdale care home that blasted rap music into the bedrooms of its elderly residents is to close. Old folk at The Haven Nursing Home, Rastrick – whose poor standards were highlighted in the Courier – have been given seven days to find somewhere else. They are being assisted by Calderdale Council.

NHS trusts in England are creeping deeper into debt, forecasts show. Over one in three hospitals and primary care trusts, which pay for local services, are not expecting to balance their books this financial year.

A consultant paediatrician who was found guilty of serious professional misconduct for falsely accusing a man of murdering his sons is to be investigated for possible non-disclosure of evidence in criminal trials, the Attorney General has announced. Lord Goldsmith told Parliament that he would be reviewing the cases in which Prof David Southall was a prosecution witness.

{mosimage}Prof Southall was suspended from child protection work for three years in 2004 for wrongly accusing Stephen Clark of killing his children on the strength of a television documentary. Mr Clark’s wife, Sally, a solicitor, had been wrongly convicted of killing her sons and freed on appeal.

Prof Southall is currently facing a hearing before a General Medical Council ‘fitness to practise’ panel on a separate matter. He is alleged to have kept about 4,450 “special” case files on children which were not stored on the child’s proper hospital file.

Lord Goldsmith’s spokesman said there were concerns that proper disclosure of medical records may not have been made in cases that led to a prosecution. The review will go back more than 10 years and will examine all 4,450 “special” files created by Prof Southall, who practised from London’s Royal Brompton Hospital and North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Attorney General said in a written ministerial statement to the House of Lords: “It is said that Prof Southall kept so-called ‘special case’ files containing original medical records relating to his patients that were not also kept on the child’s proper hospital file. Concerns have been raised that in some of those cases criminal proceedings may have been taken but the existence of the files not revealed, resulting in their not being disclosed as part of the prosecution process. I share those concerns.