A ban on paedophiles being housed in bail hostels near schools undermined public protection, a report has said.

In 2006, the then Home Secretary John Reid introduced the ban – affecting 14 of the 100 hostels in England and Wales – after a News of the World campaign.

But the inspectorates of constabulary, probation and prisons say it led to a shortage of places for sex offenders.

This resulted in some dangerous offenders being inadequately monitored in the community, their report adds.

The inspectors said that plans to create new hostels, to meet the need of the criminal justice system, had already proved impossible because of local opposition.

The bricked-up cellar of the Haut de la Garenne children’s home was being excavated last night amid fears it could be a mass grave.

The basement where youngsters were once held in solitary confinement as punishment may hold the bodies of six children, police believe.

Specialist teams using sniffer dogs and ground radar equipment have identified a number of suspicious sites around the cellar.

Class of 1905: Quiet discipline at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey. But the ensuing years, it is feared, brought terrible acts of abuse

A skull and the partial remains of a child’s skeleton were found under the concrete grounds of the home at the weekend following the launch of a major inquiry into abuse there over half a century.

A CALLOUS care worker stole £2,000 from a vulnerable 72-year-old resident who put his trust in her.

Union leaders were locked in pay talks today aimed at facing down attempts to impose a pay cap on council workers, after warning of industrial unrest if their 6% claim is not met.

More than 1,000 residents and hundreds of staff are being consulted over a multi-million pound shake-up of day centres in Stoke-on-Trent.

A WOMAN is in a critical condition after suspected arson at an old people’s home. The 58-year-old resident suffered severe burns in the fire at Park View home, in Clayton Hall Road, Clayton, early today.

A documentary following a couple’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease has been nominated for a Bafta television award.

Only a tiny minority of drug trials on children have an independent safety monitoring committee to pick up potentially dangerous side-effects, a study has revealed.

Researchers from Nottingham University found that under 2% of the 739 international drug trials published between 1996 and 2002 had such committees of independent experts who would scrutinise data and warn, if necessary, that it was not safe to carry on.

Among the 2%, six trials had to be stopped early because of toxic effects on the child patients.

“We were very surprised by the low level of trials that had independent safety monitoring committees and are urging pharmaceutical companies to include these in all future trials involving children,” said Dr Helen Sammons, associate professor of child health at Nottingham and lead author of the paper, published in the child health journal Acta Paediatrica.

The demise of the traditional family is creating a “toxic circle” of school failure, poverty and crime, teachers said yesterday.

A study by researchers has found no evidence that the controversial MMR vaccination is linked to autism.