More needs to be done to protect the public from dangerous paedophiles living in their communities, Welsh politicians said yesterday. Their calls came as a report revealed Craig Sweeney, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a three-year-old Cardiff girl, had inappropriately approached children while he was on licence for a previous conviction.

An official report into paedophile Craig Sweeney’s abduction and sexual assault of a three-year-old girl has made 20 recommendations for change. Months before the attack in Cardiff, he indecently touched one child and made inappropriate comments to three others.

A NHS trust has promised an action plan for the cardiac centre at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital after a health watchdog found difficulties remain. A Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) review of the centre found “many failings” over several years. It follows “discord” emerging amongst cardiac surgery staff in 2003.

The funeral of Swansea graduate Michael Blakey (pictured) has been postponed while more tests are carried out on his body.More than 50 friends and colleagues of the 23-year-old charity had been planning to travel from Swansea for the service in his home town of Burnley, Lancashire, this week.

More women in Wales are choosing to give birth at home than those in any other part of the UK, new figures show. The Office of National Statistics shows there is a rise across the whole of the UK for women opting for home births but Welsh women are pushing the trend.

Hospices could be forced to cut vital services that thousands of terminally ill patients depend on because of a lack of government funding. It is feared that Wales’ 13 voluntary hospices will not be able bridge a £10m gap in funding through charitable donations alone when the money comes to an end in March. Hospices have been lobbying the Welsh Assembly Government for extra, recurring, money but health minister Dr Brian Gibbons has said this is a matter for local health boards.

An action group has staged a Christmas carol service outside a hospital as part of a campaign against plans to cut services there. More than 400 people, along with local MPs and AMs, took part in the “keeping the flame alive” event in Builth Wells on Saturday. An action group has been set up to fight plans by Powys Local Health Board (LHB) as it faces a £3.5m deficit.

Welsh hospices say they are facing a financial crisis which threatens the future of their services. Charity Help the Hospices said Welsh Assembly Government funding commitments were not enough to solve long-term financial issues. The 12 charitable hospices in Wales receive only 15% state funding on average, compared with 40% in Scotland.

A former member of the General Dental Council has likened the handling of the case of a dentist from Gwynedd infected with hepatitis C to a “witch hunt”. The health authorities wrote to 5,000 patients offering them various tests after the man was diagnosed with the disease, which over 1,000 accepted. Brian Lux, president of the Dental Practitioners Association, questioned whether all the tests were necessary.

Outdated mental health facilities in south Wales are to be replaced after £30m was earmarked for improvements by the assembly government. It will mean new day care centres and continuing care facilities in the Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust area, covering Neath-Port Talbot, Bridgend and the western Vale of Glamorgan. They should be ready by summer 2009.