'Blame fans' Hillsborough police told

4 March 2015 Last updated at 12:04

Police officers were told to put the blame for Hillsborough on "drunken, ticketless Liverpool supporters", the inquest into the disaster has heard.

Ex-inspector Clive Davis told the inquest jury he recalled a briefing given by Ch Supt Terry Wain two days after the tragedy.

Mr Davis said he was told by his boss to attend the meeting as it was a good opportunity to get noticed.

Ninety-six Liverpool fans died after crushing at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final.

Mr Davis said he worked as an inspector in the force's research and development unit in 1989 and shared an office with his superior Ch Insp Norman Bettison.

Police HQ briefing

The jury heard Mr Davis went into work on the Monday after the disaster and Ch Insp Bettison told him about the briefing later the same morning.

Mr Davis told this inquest Ch Insp Bettison had told him it would be good for the pair to attend the meeting.

He told the hearing Ch Supt Wain opened the briefing, held on the fifth floor of South Yorkshire Police headquarters in Sheffield.

Mr Davis said: "His words were, and I can almost remember them verbatim, that 'we were going to put the blame for this disaster where it belongs: on the drunken, ticketless Liverpool fans'.''

The inquests, held in Warrington, Cheshire, continue.

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Incomes 'back to pre-crisis level'

4 March 2015 Last updated at 11:42

Average household incomes are back to where they were before the financial crisis, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

However the think tank also found that incomes for working age people were still below their 2007-08 level, after adjusting for the impact of inflation.

Only over-60s will have higher incomes this year than 2007-08, the IFS report said.

That is partly because pensioners have been protected from benefit cuts.

Living standards have also risen more slowly than after previous recessions, the IFS concluded.

It said this was mainly a result of weak growth in earnings for those in work, but it said tax increases and benefit cuts, as part of the government's actions to reduce the deficit, had also had a negative impact on average incomes.

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George Osborne: "A lot of damage was done to the British economy and there's a huge job to be done"

"It's astonishing actually that seven years later incomes are still no higher than they were pre-recession and indeed for working-age households they're still a bit below where they were pre-recession," IFS director Paul Johnson told the BBC.

But those over 60 have fared much better than younger age groups.

State pensions are "triple-locked", which means they have risen by inflation, earnings or 2.5%, whichever is the highest.

As a result many pensioners have seen their incomes rise by a relatively generous amount.

However pensioners are typically at the lower end of the income scale.

Analysis: Robert Peston, BBC economics editor

The IFS is careful not to pin most of the blame for stagnating living standards on either the coalition government or on the preceding Labour one.

It says that the prime culprit is the UK's hard-to-explain woeful productivity performance - lacklustre rises in the output of workers - which has meant that significant wage rises have been unaffordable.

What will be galling to both Labour and Tories is that the IFS also faces two ways on the contentious question of whether inequality of income has worsened since the Crash.

It says that if you assume that inflation is the same for all households, then income inequality is lower in 2014-15 then in 2007-08 - largely because of those steep rises in benefit payments in 2008 and 2009 that I mentioned earlier.

But in practice, it says, inflation between 2007 and 2010 was more pernicious for the poor than the rich, because of steep rises in food and energy prices which gobble up a disproportionately large portion of the incomes of the poorest.

So adjusting for this differential impact of inflation, income inequality barely changed in this period, the IFS argues.

Read Robert's blog in full here

The IFS paper said median household income continued to rise during the recession, and peaked in 2009/10.

This may be explained by the time lag between economic performance and changes in pay.

However, household income then fell between 2011 and 2012, driven by falls in workers pay, and by rising unemployment.

Since then employment has recovered, but real pay has not.

Other findings of the analysis are that:

• Median household income in 2014-15 is now back to the same level as it was in 2007-08, but is still more than 2% below its 2009-10 peak
• Median household income grew by just 1.8% between 2011-12 and 2014-15
• Median income for those aged between 22 to 30 is 7.6% lower in 2014-15 than in 2007-08, while for those aged 31 to 59 it is 2.5% lower, but for those over 60 it is 1.8% higher.

'Difficult recovery'

The IFS said changes to spending patterns also suggested that people think their income prospects have been permanently affected by the recession, with consumption of non-durable goods, such as food and fuel, still significantly lower than at the same point in previous recessions.

"The key reason living standards have recovered so slowly has been weak earnings growth. In the long run, policies that boost productivity, and so increase real earnings, are likely to have a bigger impact on living standards than changes in tax and benefit rates," Robert Joyce, an IFS senior research economist, added.

Chancellor George Osborne told Radio 4 that the IFS findings marked "a major milestone in our recovery".

"But it's not the end of the journey. This has been a difficult recovery because we've had such a deep recession," he added.

But Cathy Jamieson, Labour's shadow financial secretary said the IFS report "confirms that working people are worse off since 2010".

"We need a recovery that reaches kitchen tables across Britain, not one which has left working people worse off," she added.

How has your income changed since the beginning of the economic crisis? You can email your story to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Have your say

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Farage: Get migration back to normal

4 March 2015 Last updated at 11:02

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Nigel Farage said 27,000 people would have passed his points system in 2014 - but that exceptions would have been made to grant visas to nurses

UKIP would cut the numbers allowed into the UK to work but would not set an annual target, Nigel Farage said.

The party wants immigration to return to "normal" levels, said Mr Farage, with between 20,000 and 50,000 migrants given work permits.

A UKIP spokesman said last week work-related immigration should be capped at 50,000 a year.

Mr Farage insisted the party had not done a U-turn, but said the public were sick of talk about caps and targets.

Some 271,000 people moved to the UK to work in the year to September 2014, according to latest figures.

'Zero control'

Mr Farage said that under the Australian-style points-based visa system he wants to see, 27,000 people would have qualified to come to work in the UK last year.

"I can't see us getting anywhere near 50,000 but - I will say this - there has been an obsession with caps, floors, ceilings, targets all through British politics. I don't think the public are interested or believe any of it."

Since 2000, he argued, "we have gone mad, we opened the doors to much of the world but in particular we opened up the doors to 10 former communist countries, and as a result of our EU membership we have absolutely zero control over the numbers who come".

Mr Farage told BBC News: "UKIP is putting forward a policy that will take immigration in Britain back to normal. Normal was from 1950 until the year 2000."

Last week, UKIP immigration spokesman Steven Woolfe said: "We would seek to have a cap of 50,000 on those coming here for work, for a period of five years."

'Making it up'

But Mr Farage said that had now changed.

"There's no U-turn, there's a change of emphasis. Rather than talking about caps we are talking about policy," he told BBC News.

Under UKIP, migrant workers would have to have a job paying more than £27,000 a year before being admitted - but there would be exceptions such as nurses.

The party would set up a quango to decide on pay levels and who should be admitted.

Chancellor George Osborne accused Mr Farage of "making it up as he goes along".

The Conservatives have also said they want to get migration back to the levels seen in the 1980s and 1990s - but unlike UKIP their chosen measure includes students and family members, as well as those emigrating from the UK.

The total figure for net migration - the difference between the numbers settling in the UK for at least a year and those leaving for at least a year - was 298,000 in the year to September.

That was three times what the Conservatives said they wanted to be at this stage - but the party insists it has not abandoned its target of reducing net migration to the "tens of thousands".

They say the target was "blown off course" by migration from within the EU and restrictions on policy imposed by their Lib Dem coalition partners.

In his speech, Mr Farage, whose party wants the UK to quit the European Union, will promise to reduce "low-skilled, Eastern European migration" and say UKIP would treat EU and non-EU migrants in the same way, with qualifying workers issued with a visa valid for five years.

The party also says it would recruit an extra 2,500 border staff.

EU referendum

"Despite Mr Cameron's pledge, net migration is now up to 300,000 people per year. It is unsustainable, unfair and unethical," Mr Farage will say.

UKIP said opinion polls consistently showed immigration to be among the public's top concerns.

Mr Cameron has said he would put the issue at the heart of negotiations over Britain's relationship with the EU ahead of an in/out referendum.

He plans a crackdown on migrants' rights to welfare payments in order to reduce the "incentive" to come to the UK.

Labour has promised to "control immigration fairly", including plans to stop cheap foreign workers replacing British staff.

It would also recruit an extra 1,000 border staff, while the Lib Dems would reintroduce exit checks at borders.

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'Plebgate' PC gets £80k libel payout

4 March 2015 Last updated at 11:59

The police officer at the centre of the "plebgate" row has accepted £80,000 in damages from Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell.

A judge ruled last year the MP probably had called PC Toby Rowland, an officer on duty at Downing Street's gates, a "pleb".

Mr Mitchell accepted using bad language but said he had not used that word.

The ex-chief whip has already paid £300,000 in legal costs to the Sun newspaper and the Police Federation.

He lost a high-profile action against News Group Newspapers, publishers of the Sun, in November.

A judge said he had reached the "firm conclusion" that Mr Mitchell had used the "politically-toxic" word "pleb" in September 2012 when he was not allowed to cycle through the main Downing Street vehicle gates.

PC Rowland's lawyer, Jeremy Clarke-Williams, told Mr Justice Warby that since that judgment Mr Mitchell "has abandoned the other defences he had raised to my client's claim and consequently terms of settlement have been agreed".

The solicitor added: "The payment of £80,000 damages by Mr Mitchell sets the seal on PC Rowland's vindication, as well as providing compensation for the injury to his reputation and the distress caused to him and his family over many months.

"Pc Rowland never felt that the events in Downing Street were anything more than a minor incident.

"He was not responsible for the publicity which followed and would have much preferred that the whole matter had never entered the public domain.

"He now simply wishes to be left in peace to continue his police career."

Neither Mr Mitchell nor Pc Rowland was in court.

'Great distress'

The row centres around a 15-second confrontation between Mr Mitchell and PC Rowland, after the then cabinet minister was refused permission to cycle through the main gates at Downing Street.

The story was splashed across the front page of The Sun, which said the chief whip swore at the officers and called them "plebs" who should learn their place.

Mr Mitchell admitted swearing but denied using the word "pleb".

He was forced to resign from the cabinet but vowed to clear his name in the libel courts, launching an action against The Sun.

PC Rowland then launched a libel action against Mr Mitchell, claiming that his reputation has been damaged by the MP's remarks and that he suffered "great distress, humiliation and upset".

In November 2014, Mr Justice Mitting ruled that Mitchell probably did call police officers "plebs"

Weighing up the competing claims, the judge said PC Rowland was "not the sort of man who would have had the wit, imagination or inclination to invent on the spur of the moment an account of what a senior politician had said to him in temper".

Officer jailed

He added that gaps and inconsistencies in PC Rowland's account did not demonstrate he had fabricated his account, as Mr Mitchell's lawyers claimed.

The judge ordered Mr Mitchell to pay interim costs of £300,000 but the total legal bill he will face is not yet known.

A Scotland Yard diplomatic protection officer has been jailed for 12 months after admitting lying about the "plebgate" incident.

Keith Wallis falsely claimed in an email to his MP, the Conservative deputy chief whip John Randall, that he had witnessed the confrontation.

Wallis and three other members of the Metropolitan Police's elite diplomatic protection squad have been sacked for gross misconduct in relation to the "plebgate" incident and its subsequent leaking to the press.

Separately, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, has launched an investigation into three officers - one each from from the Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands forces - over an account they gave of a meeting with Mr Mitchell at the height of the affair.

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Lovers convicted of killing girl

4 March 2015 Last updated at 12:09

A woman and her sadistic lover who created a cyber fantasy world have been convicted of killing her eight-year-old daughter.

Ayesha Ali was found dead in her bedroom with more than 50 injuries in east London, in August 2013.

The girl's mother Polly Chowdhury, 35, and her lover Kiki Muddar, 43, were convicted of manslaughter.

The Old Bailey heard Muddar manipulated Chowdhury through a series of fictitious friends on social media.

'Bad blood'

Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC told the court Ayesha endured a "background of prolonged abuse" and some "might call it torture" because Muddar had a "disgust" of the child.

Muddar, of Green Lane, Ilford, used Facebook updates and text messages to poison Chowdhury, of Broomfield Road, Chadwell Heath against her daughter, the jury was told.

One alias she created was spirit guide Skyman, who Muddar used to manipulated Chowdhury into believing Ayesha had "bad blood" and needed to be disciplined to get the "evil spirits" out of her.

Chowdhury admitted during the case that after Muddar moved in with her, they smacked Ayesha and hit her with a wooden spoon because Skyman told them to do so via text message.

Post-mortem examinations revealed Ayesha died as a result of damage to the head from a blow or blows.

Her body was also covered in a range of other injuries including carpet burns and a bite mark from her mother.

Mr Whittam told the court that a psychiatrist said Ms Muddar was not delusional and understood what she was doing.

"She was rational in her judgments in having a disgust with Ayesha. She did not like Polly Chowdhury putting Ayesha above her interests," he said.

"However immoral, abhorrent and illegal her judgment, it was rational... there is no question of either defendant having been mad."

The jury, which retired on 19 February, cleared the pair of murder but found them guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 10-2 after deliberating for more than 31 hours.

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Sex gangs targeted hundreds of girls

3 March 2015 Last updated at 11:59

As many as 373 girls may have been targeted for sex by gangs of men in Oxfordshire in the last 16 years, a serious case review found.

The investigation came after a sadistic sex gang of seven men were jailed in 2013 for abusing six girls in Oxford, between 2004 and 2012.

Thames Valley Police and Oxfordshire County Council made "many errors" in that case and could have acted sooner.

A victim of the gang said the issue had been "swept under the carpet".

Speaking at a press conference, the chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB) Maggie Blyth said: "What happened to the victims is deeply disturbing.

"It is shocking that these children were subjected to such appalling sexual exploitation for so long."

Ms Blyth said there had been 60 "learning points" identified within the review and 13 recommendations put forward.

The report also called for research into why a significant proportion of people convicted in these kind of cases are of "Pakistani and/or Muslim heritage".

In the Oxford case, known as Operation Bullfinch, two of the men were of east African origin and five of Pakistani origin.

'Disgusting' treatment

Continue reading the main story

We are determined to do all we can to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again"

End Quote Chief Constable Sara Thornton Thames Valley

The report, compiled by the OSCB, found authorities made mistakes and could have acted sooner but it found no evidence of wilful neglect or that the signs of exploitation were ignored.

It blamed a lack of action on three key attitudes of those in power:

• Girls were disbelieved due to the interpretation of their "precocious and difficult" behaviour
• There was a failure to recognise their ability to resist abuse had been eroded by grooming escalating to violent control
• There was also pessimism about the prospect of successful convictions as most of the evidence gained was either withdrawn or later denied

A victim of the Operation Bullfinch gang, who was 13 when the abuse started, told BBC News: "Looking back as an adult now, it's disgusting the way we were treated.

"My mother would [tell authorities] she's been with older males... she's been beaten up, she's been injected with heroin.

"That was not enough for them to do anything about it, [to the authorities] we were just troublesome girls, probably a bit gobby, a bit aggressive and they just didn't want to know.

"They [the men] used to pick girls up outside social services offices on the Cowley Road, if that doesn't say something then I don't know what does."

'Ashamed of shortcomings'

The girls, aged between 11 and 15, were plied with alcohol and drugs and led to believe their abusers were their boyfriends.

They were then each either abused by the men themselves, given to the men's friends or offered at a price to others who were not on trial.

One victim was forced to have an illegal back-room abortion when she was 12 after falling pregnant at the hands of one of her abusers.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton, from Thames Valley Police, repeated an apology to victims and their families.

She said: "We are ashamed of the shortcomings identified in this report and we are determined to do all we can to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."

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Emwazi tape: I'm no extremist

3 March 2015 Last updated at 11:05

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In the recording Mohammed Emwazi described the 2007 London terror attacks as "extremism", saying "innocent people died"

A recording has emerged in which the Islamic State fighter Mohammed Emwazi denied being an extremist and complained about UK security services.

In the tape, Emwazi - known as "Jihadi John" - said MI5 had threatened him and tried to "put words into my mouth".

The tape was made in 2009 by advocacy group Cage after Emwazi was deported from Tanzania and questioned by MI5.

The Kuwait-born Briton is believed to have taken part in the beheadings of Western hostages by Islamic State (IS).

In emails and a meeting with Cage, Emwazi said he had arrived in Tanzania for a safari holiday in 2009 but had been refused entry and was put on a flight to Amsterdam, where a British agent accused him of trying to reach Somalia for terrorism training.

Speaking to Cage when he returned to London later that year, Emwazi said: "He [the MI5 officer] looked at me and he said 'I still believe that you're going to Somalia to train'.

"I said 'after what I just told you, after… I told you that what's happening is extremism… you're still suggesting that I'm an extremist?'

"He just started, you know, going on trying to put words into my mouth."

Emwazi said MI5 officers had been "threatening" him and told him: "We're going to keep a close eye on you Mohammed, we already have been."

He said the agent - who called himself Nick - also asked him what he thought of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the 7 July attacks in London.

Emwazi replied "innocent people" had been killed in the 7/7 attacks and it was "extremism". He also said what happened on 9/11 was "wrong".

"What do you want me to say?" he said he told Nick. "If I had the opportunity for those lives come back then I would make those lives come back."

Cage's research director Asim Qureshi made the recording on a Dictaphone. The excerpt is part of a longer recording, not all of which was made available to the BBC.

Mr Qureshi has been criticised after suggesting MI5 harassment could have contributed to the radicalisation of Emwazi.

But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday: "All we are asking for is a little bit of accountability.

"What we want to see is that our security agencies don't operate in a way that actually drives people away from feeling like they have a role to play in this society."

Mr Qureshi said Cage was "horrified" by Islamic State's killings and insisted his comments were "not about sticking up for" Emwazi.

Jihadi John was unmasked as 26-year-old Emwazi last week, although British and US security services have reportedly known his identity for some time.

Jihadi John, a nickname coined by the British press, has been seen in several videos showing the apparent murders of Islamic State captives, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.

Emwazi's parents, who live in Kuwait, are said to have told the authorities there that they last spoke to their son in 2013 when he called them from Turkey.

They said he told them he was going to do humanitarian work in Syria.

Emwazi's mother is said to have told Kuwaiti officials she immediately recognised his voice when she heard him on a hostage video.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait in 1988 and came to the UK in 1994 when he was six years old.

He was educated at the Quintin Kynaston Community Academy in St John's Wood, north London, and then graduated from the University of Westminster in 2009 with a computing degree.

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Conductor Simon Rattle to lead LSO

3 March 2015 Last updated at 10:57

Conductor Sir Simon Rattle is to join the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), it has been confirmed.

Sir Simon said it was "a very obvious step - and the idea of coming home and having a position in this fantastic city is also a thrill for me".

He is currently director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has been since 2002 and has three years left on his contract.

He will take up the position at the LSO from September 2017.

'Proper' London venues

Sir Simon, 60, made headlines last month when he told the BBC London's concert halls were not up to international standards.

Speaking ahead of a sold-out London residency with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Barbican, the revered conductor said he would consider a London move if there was a "proper" venue.

"You have no idea how great the London Symphony Orchestra can sound in a great concert hall," he told BBC arts editor Will Gompertz.

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Rumours are circulating in the music world that Sir Simon Rattle could be heading for London, as Will Gompertz reports

The following week, UK Chancellor George Osborne ordered an official feasibility study into the building of a new concert hall in the capital.

However Sir Simon said on Tuesday his move to London was not contingent on the city getting a new hall.

He told reporters he had met the orchestra ahead of the announcement at the LSO's Barbican home: "I said to the orchestra this is my last job.

"At the moment this is a normal five year term with a rolling possibility. We will look on each other as a family and will see where it goes.

"It is on all our minds that it is a long term thing."

He later tweeted via the LSO: "I can't imagine a more inspiring way to spend my next years, and feel immensely fortunate to have the LSO as my musical family."

The orchestra added: "We are thrilled that Sir Simon has accepted our invitation to lead the LSO into the future and welcome him as our music director."

The conductor also outlined his vision for his role, calling for "universal access to music, with children and young people at it's heart".

The LSO is regarded as one of the UK's flagship orchestras and its principal conductor is one of the most high-profile roles in classical music. Others to have held the title previously include Andre Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas and Sir Colin Davis.

Its current principal conductor, Valery Gergiev, is to stand down at the end of 2015.

Living in Berlin

Sir Simon announced in January 2013 he would leave the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra after his contract expires in 2018. At the time he admitted it had not been an "easy decision".

The conductor said once he takes up his role at the LSO, his family would probably not relocate to London.

"We imagine still living in Berlin. I will be with orchestra for four months in the year and I will have a home in London," he said.

He has a number of concerts with the LSO - which he first directed in 1977 - lined up for July 2015 and 2016.

Sir Simon was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He made his Proms debut in 1976 and his opera debut in 1977 at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Between 1980 and 1998, he made his name at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He was knighted in 1994.

Sir Simon appeared at the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, when he and the LSO were upstaged by Mr Bean while playing the theme to Chariots of Fire.

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Body parts found in Becky search

3 March 2015 Last updated at 11:46

Police investigating the disappearance of teenager Becky Watts say they have found body parts at a house in Bristol.

Four men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

A 28-year-old man and 21-year-old woman remain in custody on suspicion of murder.

Becky, 16, was last seen at her home in St George, Bristol, on 19 February. Police said her family had been told the "devastating" news.

Det Supt Mike Courtiour, of Avon and Somerset Police, said officers attended a house at Barton Court in the Barton Hill area of the city after receiving new information on Monday night.

"The information suggested that Becky's body had been cut up and a search at the new location resulted in the discovery of body parts," he said.

'Terrible ordeal'

"Although formal identification procedures have not yet been completed, we have made Becky's family aware of this discovery."

He said the latest five arrests - two men aged 29, two aged 23 and a woman aged 23 - were made as a result of the find. All seven arrested people remain in police custody.

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Det Sup Mike Courtiour said police had made the family aware of the discovery

Det Supt Courtiour added: "This is devastating news for Becky's family and friends and our thoughts are with them. We will continue to offer every support we can to them during this terrible ordeal."

Becky's mother, Tania, grandmother Pat and brother Daniel Watts, released a joint statement following the discovery.

"We are devastated to be told of this latest development," it read.

"We are at an utter loss to understand why anyone would want to hurt our beautiful Becky in such a brutal way.

"Whilst there are people in custody, none of whom are connected to the Watts family, we will not be making any further comment and we ask that our privacy is respected at this horrific time."

The BBC's Andrew Plant, who is at Barton Court, said police were removing wheelie bins from the street.

He said the bins were last collected before Becky went missing.

Bristol Mayor George Ferguson tweeted: "Very grim sounding news re missing #Bristol teenager Becky - our hearts go out to her family and friends."

A number of places, including three houses and woodland, have been searched as part of the investigation.

Becky had left home with her phone, laptop and tablet computer but did not tell her friends or family where she was going, or take extra clothing.

She was reported missing at 16:00 GMT on 20 February.

Avon and Somerset Police had said it was running six search teams in the hunt for Becky.

Experts from the National Crime Agency and College of Policing were also involved, and a police helicopter has been used in the search.

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'Lethal failures' led to baby deaths

3 March 2015 Last updated at 12:00 By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News

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WATCH: Dr Bill Kirkup reports on the findings of the independent investigation

A "lethal mix" of failures at a Cumbrian hospital led to the unnecessary deaths of 11 babies and one mother, an inquiry has ruled.

The investigation into Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust found 20 major failures in care from 2004 to 2013 at Furness General Hospital.

It called the avoidable incidents "serious and shocking".

And it criticised the wider NHS for the way it had monitored and regulated the goings on.

In an echo of the inquiries in the Stafford Hospital scandal, the report said the problems found represented a "simultaneous failure of a great many systems at almost every level from labour ward to the headquarters of national bodies".

The investigation - led by Dr Bill Kirkup, a former senior Department of Health official - found:

• The maternity unit was "dysfunctional" with "substandard care" provided by staff who were "deficient in skills and knowledge"
• Working relationships between doctors and midwives were extremely poor with midwives referring to themselves as "the musketeers"
• There was "significant organisational failure" on the part of the Care Quality Commission.
• The North West Health Authority and Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman had failed to take opportunities that could have brought the problems to light sooner
• Meanwhile, the Department of Health was reliant on misleadingly optimistic assessments from regulators

Despite the failures starting in 2004 and continuing throughout the period, including a cluster of five major incidents in 2008, it was only in 2011 that the issues at Furness General came to wider attention.

This was after strong criticism from a coroner who looked into the death of newborn Joshua Titcombe. The coroner ruled Joshua had died of natural causes in 2008 but midwives had repeatedly missed opportunities to spot and treat a serious infection.

Around this time a report came to light that the trust itself had commissioned. It was produced in early 2010, but "suppressed" by the trust.

But before that the trust had failed to act on earlier incidents and even distorted the way information was presented to inquests.

Catalogue of errors

The CQC, regional health authority and ombudsman had not acted properly on what they knew either. There was knowledge of five major incidents in 2009 as the trust had revealed them as part of its application for foundation trust status, which is reserved for elite trusts.

But the regulators did not take the necessary action to fully investigate what had happened and the trust gained foundation status in September 2010.

Dr Kirkup said: "This was a disturbing catalogue of missed opportunities."

His inquiry makes 44 recommendations, including calling for a national review of maternity care and for the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to investigate the staff involved in care during the period.

Six midwives are already due before the NMC later this year - and a seventh is being investigated.

Meanwhile, a police investigation into the death of Joshua Titcombe is continuing and the Health and Safety Executive is looking into the case.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is due to make a statement later.

The parents' story

Parent power prompted midwife review

James Titcombe's son Joshua was nine days old when he died of sepsis. He was born at Furness General Hospital and was transferred to two other hospitals before dying in Newcastle.

"We asked repeatedly if Joshua should have antibiotics and we were told 'No, he didn't [need any]'," said Mr Titcombe.

"He was wheezing, and he wasn't feeding properly, and my wife called the emergency bell because he was grunting.

"And every time, we were told Joshua was fine and that there was nothing to worry about. At no stage was a doctor ever called."

Afterwards Joshua's progress chart went missing, never to re-emerge, and the coroner later said there was a suspicion that it may have been deliberately destroyed.

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