Week in review

12:21pm Sunday 7th September 2008

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AWARD winning News Shopper always brings you the biggest stories first. Here is a selection of the news hitting the headlines this week.

Man arrested after threatening to jump on M20

A MAN who brought traffic to a standstill when he threatened to jump from a footbridge over the M20 has been arrested.

The man in his early 20s was arrested for offences including causing a public nuisance, after Kent police were called to reports of a man threatening to jump from a footbridge over the M20 at Junction 1 for the second time in a week.

London bound and coast bound carriageways were closed from shortly after noon yesterday (September 4) to allow emergency services access to deal with the situation.

And traffic in the area was brought to a slow crawl as motorists attempted to find alternative routes.

Report shows sex selling for £10

PROSTITUTES in the area are offering unprotected oral sex for as little as £10.

Eaves, a charity which provides accommodation and support to trafficked women, also told News Shopper that some brothels in Lewisham and Greenwich are offering unprotected full sex for just £30.

The shocking findings come from the charity's Poppy Project study of brothels across London which found there were 26 brothels advertised in the print media across the two boroughs.

Researchers posed as potential punters and phoned brothels advertised in local newspapers. They asked for prices as well as details about the women who worked there.

In July News Shopper made the decision to remove all adult service advertisements from its print and online publications to play its part in tackling people trafficking and sex slavery.

Lewisham in top ten 'dangerous places'

LEWISHAM has been named among the top ten most violent places in the country and the top five most violent boroughs in London.

Research by the personal safety charity, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, based on figures from the Home Office, found 33 out of 1000 people were victims of "violence against the person" in the 2007/08 financial year.

In this period there were 8, 376 violent offences committed against people in Lewisham - an increase of 314 from the previous year meaning the borough jumps up ten places.

The report comes after seven murders in the borough from July last year to July this year.

However, Lewisham police's head of partnership, Superintendent Lisa Crook, defended the police pointing to a 8.6 percent drop in the number of wounding offences and a 16 percent reduction in crimes involving the possession of offensive weapons.

Trust debt report to come out

A REPORT into how a health trust got itself into £99m of debt will be published this month.

Last year Bromley Hospitals' NHS Trust commissioned Michael Taylor, an independent investigator for the NHS and expert in financial management, to make recommendations on how the trust can improve the handling of its finances.

The report, known as the Taylor Report, was made in December last year and January this year.

It looked at whether the trust spent money wisely and in the best interests of patients.