Children as young as eight are being referred to the children’s reporter with drink and drug problems, figures have revealed for the first time. Referrals are made if social workers, the police or school teachers are sufficiently worried, about the welfare of individuals. The number of children 16 and under coming before a hearing because of alcohol or narcotic abuse fell from 219 in 2003-4 to 160 the following year.

More than 30 licensed premises have been reported for selling alcohol to under-age customers in the first month of a pioneering police project using “undercover” children. Supermarkets, pubs and corner shops were among those caught in the operation in Fife, the first of its kind in Scotland. The operation is likely to be introduced throughout the country next year following the year-long project. It is part of a joint initiative by police and the Scottish Executive to stop children buying alcohol.

An Indonesian national has been recommended for deportation after a string of sex offences in Galashiels. Home Secretary John Reid will now decide whether Amelio Ximenes, 22, is sent back to Portugal, where he came from after becoming an EU citizen. He attacked a woman in Channel Street, Galashiels, on 31 July, 2004, and followed two other women in October. His defence denied he posed a high risk of reoffending but the sheriff at Selkirk recommended deportation.

The number of prisoner complaints soared to a record high last year, a report has revealed. A total of 460 grievances were filed by inmates, the largest number in the 12-year history of the Scottish Prison Complaints Commission (SPCC). The report also showed there were 70 more complaints than the previous year.

A care worker who looked after an 83-year-old millionaire married him almost three months before his death – and inherited £750,000. Marion Morris, 52, wed frail Ross Smith in his country mansion as the old man sat hooked up to an oxygen tank in a wheelchair. Ross changed his will five weeks before the ceremony to leave Marion half his fortune. She will get at least £750,000, including half the cash from the sale of her husband’s house. If it fetches a high enough price, she could become a millionaire herself.

Marc Donnachie is 25 years old. For the past seven years, he says, he has been a junkie, a jagger and a smackhead. He struggles to remember how many times he has been to prison, but thinks it’s about 12. His teeth, white and gleaming, are all false. Heroin addicts, he tells me, usually have rotten teeth because they don’t think about eating meals, only sugary tea and chocolate.

A new £20 million home for the elderly would be built in an eyesore area of Morningside in Edinburgh, according to the plans of an American company. The proposals, submitted to the city council by US firm Sunrise Senior Living, would see a mansion-style care home built on the corner of Whitehouse Loan and Newbattle Terrace, which is currently filled with derelict houses. The company earmarked the site for development in April, but has now changed the plans after consulting concerned local councillors and community leaders who feared the home would not fit in with the surrounding area.

A project in the Highlands designed to help teenagers affected by substance misuse or anti-social behaviour has won national recognition. Gael Og Mentoring, run by children’s charity NCH Scotland, is one of the first such services in Scotland to be awarded Approved Provider Status (APS). The APS scheme was developed by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation with support from the Home Office.

Campaigners fighting to save rural maternity services in Aberdeenshire are getting a final opportunity to present their case ahead of a decision. NHS Grampian is assessing the future of maternity units at Aboyne, Fraserburgh, Banff and Huntly. The health board has recommended stopping maternity services at the units due to declining birth rates. Several mothers, some with babies, are expected to lobby the board in Aberdeen ahead of a decision on Tuesday.

Children from the age of five should be encouraged to drink wine at home to prevent the toll of alcohol abuse in later life, one of the country’s leading experts on the problem has told Scotland on Sunday. Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland and a member of the Scottish Ministerial Advisory Committee on Alcohol Problems, believes the practice would cut binge drinking among youngsters by taking the mystery out of alcohol.