Babysitter attacked little boys

A man has admitted violent assaults on a four-year-old boy and his toddler brother when he was babysitting them.

Thomas Leishman, from Coatbridge, repeatedly kicked and struck the boys over a six-month period, the High Court in Glasgow heard.

The judge heard that Leishman, 26, inflicted 44 injuries on the four-year-old boy and locked the younger child in a cupboard.

Sentence was deferred until next month, pending reports on Leishman.

The court was told that Leishman had twisted the older boy's leg so brutally it fractured.

He beat him up to such an extent his bladder and liver were ruptured and he kicked the boy in the groin. The child needed surgery at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow.

Kept in cupboard

Judge Rita Rae was told that a doctor called the injuries some of the worst she had ever seen on a child.

His brother, who was aged between 18 months and two at the time, also suffered head and body injuries.

The younger boy had been locked in a cupboard, the court heard.

A witness described how she had heard Leishman shouting in a "horrendous" way and police were told by the four-year-old that "Tam was always hitting us".

Leishman was remanded in custody.

Warning of possible job shortages

There may be a lack of job opportunities for school-leavers in Jersey with learning difficulties, a States committee has warned.

The sub-committee in the Chief Minister's Department has been set up to investigate the problem.

Deputy Ian Gorst said the group was looking at the extent of the problem and possible solutions.

Their findings will be considered by the Council of Ministers and individual States departments.

A spokesman for Jersey Mencap confirmed some people still could not find work despite a training centre recently opening.

The purpose-built Oakfield training centre for people with learning disabilities opened after a £500,000 refit.

Doubt cast on baby death verdict

Fresh evidence casting doubt on the conviction of a woman for the murder of a boy she was babysitting, has been uncovered by BBC Newsnight.

Suzanne Holdsworth, from Hartlepool, is serving life after a court was told she smashed Kyle Fisher against a banister with as much force as a 60mph crash.

The two-year-old died in hospital with a massively swollen brain but only some bruising on the outside of his head.

A leading neuro-pathologist says it is "unlikely" an impact caused his death.

Holdsworth, 37, who worked at the check-out at Asda supermarket in Hartlepool, has always said she did not commit the crime.

Her partner, Lee Spencer, and their two daughters, Lesley, 19 and Jamie-Leigh, 13, have never believed that she killed the little boy they all doted on.

The jury at Holdsworth's trial at Teesside Crown Court was told that the death took place after Kyle's mother, Clare Fisher, dropped her son off at her neighbour's in Millpool Close in July 2004 when she went clubbing.

'Meaningless'

According to the 60mph impact version of events, Kyle was left brain dead but the banister remained intact and unmarked by hair, tissue and blood.

But one of the country's most eminent neuro-pathologists, Dr Waney Squier, has dismissed the scenario as "meaningless, emotive words that have absolutely no scientific validity".

She said: "A 60mph impact of a baby's head on a banister would cause massive damage to the head, massive skull fracturing.

"Kyle had bruises, he had no scalp swelling, he had no skull fractures, so I think that is extremely unlikely.'"

Kyle's father, Jon Taylor, who is separated from his mother, told the BBC: "It just happened to be that Suzanne was babysitting him.

"I could have been babysitting him, so that would mean I'd have probably ended up in jail."

999 call

Kyle's eye is at the heart of a case which may prove to be yet another grave miscarriage of justice.

Surgeons Professor Brian Avery and Sid Marks both saw Kyle in May, 2004, and planned to operate on his face.

The court heard that Kyle suffered an eye injury in 2003 after he fell from a buggy while he was being looked after by his mother.

Dr Squier told the BBC that Kyle's brain had two separate abnormalities, a congenital brain condition that can cause fits and the eye socket injury.

She said: "The brain had started to push down through that fracture into the eye socket and displacing the eye. The brain was scarred.

"So Kyle in fact had two abnormalities in his brain that would predispose him to having seizures. And seizures can kill."

The investigation into Kyle's death was led by Det Supt Tony Hutchinson of Cleveland police, an officer with 50 murder inquiries under his belt.

Det Supt Hutchinson said after the trial that Holdsworth "very calmly applied her mind as to how she would explain the injury to the authorities".

In Holdsworth's 999 call, she told the operator Kyle was "not breathing… his eyes are rolling and everything…"

The operator asked if Kyle had had a fit. Holdsworth said he had.

The operator then asked Holdsworth if Kyle had any pre-existing injury.

She replied: "He's got a hole in his head, a hole in his eye and they're going to have take his skin off to get to it. You know, his face."

No comment

The police did not take written statements from either of the two surgeons who saw Kyle in 2004.

Prof Avery, who is a dean of the Royal College of Surgeons, told the BBC: "I had potentially useful information and I was surprised that the police did not contact me."

Newsnight put a number of questions to Det Supt Hutchinson but he declined to comment. Asked how she was going to get through her third Christmas inside, Holdsworth said: "I go on the phone, pretend I'm fine because my babies and my partner are having Christmas. I go back to my room and I cry and I cry and I cry."

Since making that call, Suzanne Holdsworth has been disciplined by the prison authorities for talking to the BBC and her ability to talk to her family restricted.

John Sweeney's report is on BBC2's Newsnight at 2230 GMT on Thursday, 6 December.

Art college merger promises jobs

Two design institutes are to merge, eventually forming a specialist university for arts in the South East.

Former students at Kent Institute of Art and Design (Kiad) include artist Tracey Emin, fashion designer Karen Millen and TV personality Tony Hart.

Now Kiad has said a merger with Surrey Institute of Art and Design will shape specialist art education and provide more job opportunities for students.

Professor Vaughan Grylls said: "It will be a better gateway to the industries."

The director of Kiad said preparation for work was partly through links with the staff who worked in the creative industries themselves.

"What it means is greater opportunities certainly in terms of employment for our students by sharing our expertise," he said.

The colleges' different specialisms currently include architecture at the Kent institute and broadcasting at Surrey, and the two institutions say they plan to combine existing strengths and build on similarities in size, focus and reputation.

A legal agreement to merge has been signed and the arts university college is to be established on 1 August this year, supported with a grant of £2.3m from the Higher Education Funding Council.

'No ivory tower'

Professor Elaine Thomas, director of the Surrey institute, said support for the project "further enhanced belief that the goal of achieving university status by 2007 is possible".

Professor Grylls said the colleges intended to keep existing campuses across Kent and Surrey, which currently include Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester.

"We are against the idea of the ivory tower university," he said.

"Having campuses in the centre of a town is important because artists, designers and architects are very much to do with the urban environment.

"It's a question of having a creative art institute that actually brings something extra to the town, for example each campus has its own art gallery."

Odd jobs at the Edinburgh Fringe

With the annual launch of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe comes a bizarre array of short-term job opportunities attracting theatre lovers eager to experience the world's biggest arts festival.

The traditional festival job involves long hours, poor accommodation and very little money, and this year is no exception.

THE RICKSHAW DRIVER

Will Roper's job is not easy. He drives a cycle rickshaw – and Edinburgh's relentless hills do not make life easy.

"This is my fourth day and I'm shattered. Cycling up The Mound is an absolute nightmare," says Will, from Lyme Regis.

The average rickshaw driver cycles up to 30 miles per day in and around the city.

Fares depend on the length of journey, how many hills and, more interestingly, the weight of the person taking the ride.

Will can charge as little as £1 for a downhill trip, but if you want a city tour then the fare is more likely to be about £25.

Will rents his bike from the council at a cost of £120 for the day shift. He is keen to do the more lucrative night shift, but he can't get access to a rickshaw at the moment.

"The more experienced guys seem to get the nights. Maybe later in the festival I'll get something".

THE SHOW ANNOUNCER

Standing in a busy courtyard outside one of the key Fringe venues, May Cox shouts details of the impending show and tells the audience when it is time to take their seats.

"It's a fun job, but it does have its moments," says May.

"I announced the children's show Silly Billy Bum Breath the other day and got some very strange looks!"

"The worst scenario is when you announce a show and there isn't a single audience member – now that can be embarrassing."

May gets food vouchers, accommodation and small amount of money for her 12-hour daily shifts.

"I'm not here for the money – I just love the social experience of the Fringe."

THE BANNER MAN

This is Wayne Garnett's third festival – he treats it as a working holiday.

A theatre technician by trade and a keen rock climber, Wayne has found a way of making some extra cash by combining his skills.

On any given day, he can be found scaling the varied heights of the Edinburgh skyline, mounting advertising banners on the side of city buildings.

"They call it the windy city – and they're not wrong," says Wayne, precariously balanced midway up a building on the Royal Mile.

THE LEAFLETEER

Jane Gourlay works for a leafleting agency; she hands out about 500 flyers each day for some 25 different shows.

She gets paid £6.50 per hour, and works up to 12 hours each day.

"I tend to chat to the person about the show, so it's more of a marketing service really," explains Jane.

"Some people just hand them out and say nothing".

THE COLLECTOR

Kim Harfitt picks up the flyers which other people throw away.

The 20-year-old student spends her day wandering around the festival courtyards collecting up hundreds of flyers and disposing of them in recycling bins.

She is paid £5.35 per hour and has a discount card for drinks and food.

"I quite often just follow the person handing out the flyers and collect the flyer when they are discarded – often just a few seconds later!"

THE PRESS OFFICER

Tracey Fisher works at the Fringe press office and expects to spend up to 14 hours a day in the office during the three week festival.

The job has plenty of variety. One minute she'll be on the phone to the New York Times, and the next dealing with disgruntled students desperate to sell tickets for their show.

"I suppose we guide people through the process of trying to get an audience," says Tracey.

Like most Fringe workers, Tracey is on a short-term contract. She certainly isn't in Edinburgh for the money.

Her advice to fellow Fringe job seekers: "Just don't work out what you get paid an hour!"

Russia limits jobs for immigrants

Tough new laws limiting job opportunities for immigrants have been introduced in Russia.

The number of non-Russians working in the retail trade is now being limited to 40%, but by the end of the year that number is supposed to be zero.

Police raid the country's markets on a daily basis, enforcing quotas on the number of foreign workers – mainly from central Asia and the Caucasus.

The new law was proposed after race riots in northern Russia last summer.

President Vladimir Putin spoke of the need to defend the interests of the native population.

Markets – often a source of employment for Russia's army of immigrant workers – were singled out.

Immigration officials say that the new laws have encouraged more foreigners to apply for legal residency status even if they will remain barred from working in retail.

Human rights groups fear that police officers may try to abuse their authority as they carry out their duties.

Immigrant workers share those fears. They also question who would actually do their often difficult, dangerous and dirty jobs if they did not.

Pupils flock to annual jobs event

More than 5,000 teenagers are due to attend the annual Gloucestershire Skills Festival, to consider their future career options.

Forty local employers have booked stands at the event, which is under way at the GL1 leisure centre, Gloucester.

The festival gives 14 to 19-year-olds and business bosses the chance to meet and discuss job opportunities.

It has been divided into 'zones' to make it easier for youngsters to find the jobs they are interested in.

These include construction and engineering, hair and beauty, sport and leisure, the media and agriculture.

Pauline Bailey, from the Learning and Skills Council which is organising the festival, said: "For some students it's the first time they've had the opportunity to really understand what some jobs and careers entail.

"Each year I talk to young people at the festival who say they've been inspired by seeing 'the real thing' on show."

MySpace looks to UK music scene

A UK version of the social networking site MySpace.com is to be launched "within the next 30 days".

The announcement was made by Fox Interactive Media president Ross Levinson at a meeting of the National Association of Television Programme Executives in Las Vegas.

The site allows users to share video and photos, write blogs and network with other users.

Despite only being two years old, it has 50 million registered users.

Some 32 million of these are actively using the site.

Mr Levinson described its success as "not something you can compare to anything in the history of the internet".

Music scene

Intermix Media which owned MySpace was bought in July last year by News Corporation, the parent company of Fox, for $580m (£332.85m) as part of its strategy to increase its presence online.

Around a million of its current users are based in the UK.

In an interview with the BBC News website, Mr Levinson said the first priority of the new site would be the UK music scene.

"Clearly the first place to go is music, so we will tap into the music scene," he said.

"We're already working in the US with CD:UK which is coming over to the US, to be called CD:USA, and we're going to integrate bands from MySpace into that programme.

"We hope when we go back to the UK to tap into how successful that show is. Hopefully they'll want to market through MySpace and we'll tap into the local events scene, parties, clubs, artists, film makers, television producers, so I think it's going to grow pretty rapidly."

Mr Levinson said News Corporation would be using the other properties it owns in the UK such as The Sun and The Times newspapers and Sky Television to promote the UK version of MySpace.

He said the site was particularly attractive to advertisers because its users are overwhelmingly aged between 16 and 34 years old, an age bracket companies are keen to target.

Sex and the City: Fashion focus

Grumbles of actresses 'playing it safe' with their outfits on Oscar night is the stuff of fashion cliche.

There were high hopes in fashion circles, therefore, for Monday's Sex and the City film premiere.

Fantastic clothes, after all, are its "sixth character". And with reports of tensions between the ever-glamorous co-stars over what they would wear to the film's opening night in London's Leicester Square, all eyes were on the arrival of the fabulous four.

To the chants of a near-hysterical crowd, Sarah Jessica Parker unveiled a show-stopping spring ensemble by British designer Alexander McQueen.

An exquisite, strapless, chartreuse tulle and feather prom dress, teamed with a witty Philip Treacy hat festooned with flowers and butterflies, looked fresh and pretty on the 43-year-old actress.

The delicately pleated tulle criss-crossed over the bodice to accentuate the star's exceedingly narrow waist; an effect she exaggerated as she twirled atop five-inch heels, to the press pack's delight.

Asked of her outfit's exact provenance, Parker played to the local crowd: "A Brit, I think you're familiar with him!"

Scarlet ladies

Supporting another British fashion revolutionary was English-born actress Kim Cattrall, resplendent in a scarlet, off-the-shoulder taffeta dress by Vivienne Westwood.

The cowl neck that is the designer's trademark tantalisingly exposed the actress's decollete.

The effect was one of classical beauty rather than the explicit sexuality of Cattrall's character, Samantha Jones.

An asymmetrical, knee-length hemline and bustle detail added "directional" touches that prevented the 51-year-old from looking boring – or worse, stately.

Red is considered an "appropriate" colour for premiere dressing and was much in evidence at the Oscars in February.

Also dressed in scarlet, Kristin Davis fuelled rumours that not even the four co-stars were party to details of each other's outfits.

On stepping out her car, the actress visibly blanched at the sight of Cattrall's dress.

Davis opted for "vintage": a sleeveless, calf-length chiffon sheath.

Despite the gentle pleats defining its inner corsetry, Davis's choice was less structured than her fans have come to expect of her character Charlotte York.

Covered to the neck, it was demure, yes, but perhaps the least ravishing of the four.

Miranda Hobbes struggled with her weight throughout the plotline and wore the least appealing clothes.

To make matters worse for poor Cynthia Nixon who played her, the show's stylist Patricia Field has been quoted as saying the actress was difficult to dress because of her innate lack of style.

Nixon's detractors will be staggered to note that hers was the most fashion-conscious statement of all: a daring, black maxi dress by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein.

Two finely-pleated straps, cut to her waist, barely concealed Nixon's breasts, and the actress looked more like Charlotte Rampling in Night Porter than the uptight lawyer Nixon plays in the show.

'Naughty nurse'

Floor-grazing gowns were conspicuous by their absence, however, as a more informal "day dressing" spirit prevailed among the other guests (not a glove to be seen).

Recalling Sharon Stone's controversial decision to wear a Gap turtleneck to the 1996 Oscars, model and presenter Lisa Snowden teamed a graphic, black-and-white print skirt with a cap sleeved black T-shirt.

Flattering, certainly, but no more formal than you might wear to the office. Ashes to Ashes star Keeley Hawes conveyed coy sweetness rather than high glamour, in a dove grey baby-doll day dress with cutaway detail.

Meanwhile, surprise hit of the night Kelly Osborne scrubbed up beautifully, her hair as slick as her elegant black coatdress.

The style honours should go to singer Roisin Murphy and ex EastEnders actress Michelle Ryan, both of whom opted for conspicuous fashion.

In perhaps the most striking look of the night, Murphy also supported British design, sporting an elegant black silk dress with orange and purple sashes by the London-based Russian designer Roksanda Ilincic.

The purple "multi-step" hat was perhaps an accessory too far, but full marks for trying.

Similarly, Ryan may have looked slightly self conscious in her skin-tight, purple Herve Leger number, but it showed off her figure to full advantage.

Of course, sometimes too much of a good thing is, well, a bad thing. Leave it to Alex Curran's naughty nurse get-up to prove the old fashion adage: legs or cleavage, never both.

BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | Irish | Doak returns to his day job

Neil Doak will officially announce the end of a 15-year association with the Ulster squad this week.

Having broken through to the senior squad as a 17-year-old back in 1990, Doak is now returning to his job as a High Performance coach with the IRFU.

"I was always retiring from the representative rugby at the end of this season," the former Ireland cricket all-rounder told BBC Sport.

"The job was being held for me, and I really couldn't hold out any longer."

Doak says that he still feels that he has something to offer the playing side of the game and hopes to continue playing club rugby.

"I want to keep playing club rugby, but that is something I have to sort out at present," said 32-year-old Doak who played his first full competitive game for Ulster against Northern Transvaal back in 1995.

But his excellent coaching skills have already caught the eye and it is in that direction where he plans to concentrate.

"Obviously I would love to progress into full-time coaching. I enjoy working with players and passing on my knowledge.

Missed out

''I coached Lisburn when they were going really well and have been helping Queen's University the last few years.

"I would certainly love to move up the coaching ladder,'' said Doak who was within sight of being the first Ireland cricket and rugby international since Lions wing Ray Hunter back in the Sixties.

"I was on the bench when Ireland played Fiji at Lansdowne Road, back in 1995, but I never received the call. It just wasn't to be."

Doak started senior rugby with the now defunct North of Ireland club and then had spells with Ballymena and Malone before moving to Belfast Harlequins.

However, he dropped out of the limelight when a series of injuries including a serious ankle problem saw his career stall.

But it was his determination and natural flair that saw him back in Ulster colours again after a traumatic few years on the sidelines.

"Probably the most memorable time for me was when Alan Solomons gave me my first start in an Ulster jersey for six years in 2001.

"I was working as a Development officer with Ulster when he asked me back into the training panel. He then put me in against Leinster. I found that very emotional as I thought my chances of getting back in were long gone."

Doak earned his 76th cap for Ulster when he came on as a replacement for Kieran Campbell against The Borders recently and he is the first to acknowledge, Kieran Campbell has taken his opportunity this season.

"Kieran has been going extremely well. There is always competition for places. Afterall, he had to sit on the bench when I was the man in possession.

"But I have been very happy with my time in rugby, it has played a big part in my life and it still will for quite while yet."