Hundreds of sex offenders across Wales have been let off with their crimes – despite admitting their guilt, we can reveal. A Wales on Sunday investigation has discovered that police and the Crown Prosecution Service have released hundreds of offenders onto our streets with just a caution rather than take them to court, where they could face a jail sentence.

For the first time, pub landlords in Wrexham will join forces in a bid to drive out violent customers who regularly terrorise innocent customers. It is hoped the Pubwatch scheme will reduce the number of fights and drunken incidents in the town’s bars dramatically.

Plaid Cymru yesterday promised a full pay rise for nurses as part of its programme for the NHS. It would ditch a staggered increase which will give nurses in England and Wales a 1.5 per cent pay rise in April and another one per cent in November.

The former boss of one of Cardiff’s biggest shopping centres is facing a string of allegations that he downloaded pornography at work. Michael Kelly has been charged with 15 offences of taking or making indecent images of children and two offences of possessing indecent pictures.

The violent nature of society has led to a “deplorable” increase in attacks on Welsh teachers and pupils, teaching unions warned yesterday. The claim came as figures revealed nearly 5,000 Welsh pupils were excluded from schools in this country in the past academic year for violent offences.

People who abuse or assault NHS staff are more likely to be dealt with in court after an agreement between the Welsh Assembly Government and the Crown Prosecution Service. Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons yesterday said the threat of prosecution was the “ultimate deterrent” to such behaviour.

Health minister Brian Gibbons today pledged to crack down on violence against NHS staff in Wales. Signing an agreement with the Crown Prosecution Service to make sure people who abuse health workers are prosecuted, he said that such violence was “completely unacceptable”.

A suicide-prevention charity that runs a UK-wide “hope line” from Wrexham has set up a Wales support group. Papyrus was set up by parents who lost children by suicide and aims to prevent more young people killing themselves.

Every week eight council employees in Cardiff are physically or verbally attacked, it has been revealed. And more than a quarter of the 412 incidents last year involved attacks on staff at city schools, according to figures released to the Echo under the Freedom of Information Act.

Magistrates have agreed to close down a second drugs den in Wrexham. The doors of the property on Caia Park will be sealed for three months after magistrates granted a closure order under the Anti-social Behaviour Act.