Mental health charity Rethink has announced the appointment of Paul Jenkins as its new chief executive. Paul Jenkins is currently Director of Service Development at the NHS Direct Special Health Authority and will join the campaigning mental health membership charity on January 1st 2007. He takes up the post at a crucial period for the country’s largest voluntary sector provider of mental health services and for mental health more generally.

A vermin-infested jail has been accused of “institutional disrespect” of inmates in a damning report which listed a catalogue of failings. An inspection at Pentonville prison in north London found an “unusually high” level of alleged assaults by staff, and claims of easy access to illegal drugs.

A nursery owner falsely accused of assaulting a two-year-old girl in her care yesterday blamed modern discipline techniques driven by political correctness for her 14-month ordeal. Olive Rack, 56, was cleared by magistrates after being accused by two council inspectors of assault when she disciplined the misbehaving toddler by leading her by the arm and putting her on a “naughty chair”.

A quarter of schools are failing to teach children about the workings of British democracy and their rights and responsibilities as citizens, inspectors have warned. Ofsted judged 25% of schools inspected in the past year “inadequate” for the quality of their lessons in citizenship. Government ministers believe citizenship classes, which may in future be required to cover core “British values”, will help reduce extremism and violence among young people.

{mosimage} A nursery owner with more than 40 years of experience has spoken of her relief after she was cleared of assaulting a toddler at the end of a 14-month ordeal. Olive Rack, 56, was falsely accused by council officials of ‘losing her temper’ and dragging the two-year-old girl across the room after the child hit a 3-month-old baby on the head with a toy brick. The nursery owner said she simply followed the example of television’s Supernanny when she disciplined the toddler on a ‘naughty chair’.

But despite the fact she was backed by the toddler’s parents, and without a previous blemish to her record, Mrs Rack was charged with common assault. She was finally cleared yesterday after magistrates heard the married mother-of-three used no physical force or violence. Outside court, Mrs Rack, who has run her Tresco Day Nursery in Kettering, Northamptonshire, for 19 years, said she was ‘pleased to finally be vindicated’. Mrs Rack added: ‘I’m obviously very, very pleased with the result. But now I just want to get back to my home – and back to my work.’

A man has been banned from his home town for ten years after terrorising its residents for the past three decades. Mark Bowkett, 40, described by police as the “Scourge of Lydney”, was expelled from the town and the surrounding areas as part of an antisocial behaviour order made at Gloucestershire Magistrates’ Court. It has left him homeless and separated him from his wife and seven children.

The government is under renewed pressure today to reach a decision on the future of the 8,000-strong network of rural post offices after a report warned that older people fear financial and social isolation if Royal Mail is forced into a widespread closure programme.

If burglars put their skills to lawful use they could be as talented as surgeons or pilots, says a study published yesterday. Claire Nee and Amy Meenaghan, psychologists at the University of Portsmouth, have concluded that housebreakers use speed and efficiency that was potentially an “untapped resource for employers”.

Children as young as 12 buy alcohol by ordering it over the phone with takeaways, a government adviser says. Dr Sheila Shribman, the national clinical director for children, said the youngsters were using restaurant services to avoid suspicion. She said it was a “worrying trend” and was particularly prevalent in north-western cities such as Liverpool.

A stampede for passports to a new life in Britain began just minutes after our borders were thrown open to Bulgaria and Romania. The two impoverished eastern European nations were welcomed into the EU when their applications were rubberstamped in Brussels. They do not join officially until January 1 next year.