As many as 373 children 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’. Of the 373 cases, the council said about 50 victims were boys. Speaking at a press conference, the chair of 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.’

Churches and youth workers are being encouraged to get up to speed with social media and the internet to support those who are self-harming. A new poll, commissioned in the run up to Self-Harm Awareness Day, has shed light on the number of 11-21 year olds exposed to online self-harm images. Organised by ChildLine, SelfharmUK, YoungMinds and YouthNet, the research found that over half of 11-14 year olds have either self-harmed themselves or know someone who has self-harmed, whilst eight out of every ten 18-21 year olds say they have self-harmed or know someone who has self-harmed. Speaking on Premier's News Hour, Rachel Welch called on those in churches to do more to understand what's happening so they can make a difference. She said: ‘They're all engaging with social media so it's critically important that youth workers and other people from within the church are using those same places. It's important we go to where the young people are.‘

A threatened Christian school has defended itself on BBC Radio 4, saying a critical Ofsted report ‘contradicts’ clear evidence. The Durham Free School is set to be closed after Education Secretary Nicky Morgan restated that its funding would be withdrawn. However, the leader of the governors at the school, John Denning, said the Ofsted report which led to the funding decision ‘contradicts a whole raft of evidence’. He also addressed accusations of bullying at the school, saying pupils who had been targeted elsewhere are happy at The Durham Free School. Answering questions on Friday’s Today programme, Denning said the school was taking legal advice. He commented that parts of the schools’ watchdog’s critical report were ‘inaccurate’ and ‘just plain wrong’. The flagship BBC radio programme also heard from parents who praised the school, with one saying the school was a ‘lifeline’ for her child.

In an exclusive extended interview, Nick Clegg has told Premier he thinks it must be the most wonderful thing to have a faith and would embrace it if it came his way. The Deputy Prime Minister has been speaking ahead of the election and touched upon his personal faith journey, his time in the coalition government and the role of Church in society and politics. Mr Clegg, who's been labelled an atheist in the media, said he felt uncomfortable with the title and remains open to religion. ‘I now accompany Miriam [his wife] and the children, and do so with great joy, to Mass pretty much every weekend,’ he explained. ‘I sometimes think it must be the most wonderful thing to be infused with faith. It's not something that's happened to me, it's not happened to me yet. I would embrace it.‘

Teachers, counselors and social workers in England and Wales who fail to protect children could face up to five years in jail under new proposals. The new measures, being unveiled by the prime minister, would see the crime of ‘willful neglect’ extended to cover children's social care and education. There would also be unlimited fines for individuals and organisations shown to have let children down, and police will now prioritise sexual exploitation as a ‘national threat’. This means such abuse will be treated in a similar way to serious and organised crime, with police forces, chief constables and police and crime commissioners having a duty to collaborate in order to protect children. The government's proposals - also to include a national helpline being set up to enable professionals to report bad practice - are a response to child abuse scandals including those in Rotherham and Oxfordshire.

Hundreds of babies are being born clinically obese every year - including some weighing more than a stone. As many as 1,403 newborns have been classified as obese since 2011, according to shocking figures from a series of Freedom of Information requests. At just one trust nearly 400 babies born in the last four years weighed 9lb 15oz or more - the marker for an obese baby.  Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said that although some mothers suffer from medical conditions, which increase the size of the baby, most just overeat. 'Women have to understand that they have to keep themselves in shape due to the huge responsibility they have of producing the next generation. Successive governments have not really addressed the obesity problem. It starts at conception and sometimes even before then. If we get it wrong, it's a vicious circle and it will just go on and on and on.'

British Christian schools could face a European Commission investigation, following complaints from a humanist campaign group. The British Humanist Association (BHA) claims that faith schools breach European Union (EU) equality rules when hiring staff, because they say religious adherence is a ‘desirable’ quality. EU rules state that schools must prove there is a ‘genuine occupational requirement’ in preferring to recruit teachers of faith. Spokesman for The Christian Institute, Simon Calvert, said church schools are ‘hugely popular’, and their ethos is why they do such a good job of preparing children for life in 21st-century Britain’. ‘It’s disappointing that humanists seem to be so intolerant of religious organisations seeking to remain religious. There’s a relentless agenda to secularise religious organisations. ‘If they were to succeed, it would severely damage these church schools and undermine the great work that they do’. (See also British Isles and Ireland story.)

Imposing fines of up to £500,000 on the companies behind cold calls and nuisance text messages is to become easier under changes to the law being made by the Government. The move follows tens of thousands of complaints about cold calling. Currently, firms can only be punished if the Information Commissioner can prove a call caused ‘substantial damage or substantial distress’. But from 6 April, that legal requirement is to be removed. More than 175,000 complaints were made to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) last year about nuisance calls and text messages. The government says the number of complaints has risen in the past decade and the issue is particularly acute for the elderly and housebound as such calls can cause distress and anxiety. In a speech earlier this month, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham described the current law as ‘a licence for spammers and scammers’ and appealed for more powers

Christian environmentalists are calling on the public to buy Fairtrade products after sales fell for the first time in 20 years. The drop of nearly 4 per cent in sales of Fairtrade products reflects the success of cheap brands offered by Aldi and Lidl at a time when the Government's austerity cuts are affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Dr. Ruth Valerio, churches and Theology Director of A Rocha UK, the international Christian research, environmental and conservation charity, said switching to Fairtrade could change people's lives. The foundation was set up to help provide a fair deal for farmers and producers in the developing world. Dr. Valerio told Christian Today the fall in sales should not be ignored and she urged everyone to act.

Toxic fumes in cabin air pose a health risk to frequent fliers and aircrew, a coroner has said in a landmark report. Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, said people regularly exposed to fumes circulating in planes faced ‘consequential damage to their health’. Mr. Payne, who is inquiring into the death of Richard Westgate, a British Airways pilot, called on BA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to take ‘urgent action to prevent future deaths’. Most airline passengers, who fly only occasionally, will not be affected by the problem, but some frequent travelers who are genetically susceptible to the toxins could fall ill. His report, obtained by the Telegraph, is the first official UK recognition of so-called ‘aerotoxic syndrome’, a phenomenon long denied by airlines but which is blamed by some for the deaths of at least two pilots and numerous other incidents where pilots have passed out in flight