Charities in Inverness are having to scale back services as a cut in Highland Council’s support for voluntary organsiations begins to bite. Crossroads, which provides respite care, has written to all its clients informing them that its service will be reduced across the board, while Age Concern has been forced to abandon plans to fill a vacant post after its grant was cut by £20,000.

A man and woman who kidnapped, stripped and tortured a pregnant teenager with learning difficulties have been jailed for a total of 17 years. Tammy McGregor, 19, had hot salted water poured over her wounds and cigarettes stubbed out on her at a flat in Aberdeen.

{mosimage}Lee Holt, 27, and Donna O’Neill, 21, admitted assault, causing severe injury and permanent disfigurement. At the High Court in Edinburgh, Holt received nine years and O’Neill eight.

The judge, Lord Bracadale, said that they had subjected their victim to a long and sustained experience of torture over several hours. The judge added that such examples of calculated wickedness were rare.

Relatives of Ms McGregor told BBC Scotland they were “delighted” with the sentence after what she had endured.

Ms McGregor’s two-and-a-half hour ordeal began when she was lured to a tenement flat in the city’s Park Road in September last year. There the accused tied her up, beat her, slashed her with a knife, stubbed out cigarettes on her head and body and threatened to kill her. Ms McGregor was described as having a mental age of 12 and was terrified.

A useful family of tools that can help social service employers plan their staff induction has been launched by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).  The Preparing for Practice induction tools include: