Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Monday 2 March 2026 by Jill Powell

An abuser who suggested it was a ‘playfight’ that broke his partner’s neck, leaving her paralysed and in need of round the clock care, has been jailed for grievous bodily harm.

Landscape gardener, Robert Easom, 57, was jailed for 16 years plus a four-year extended licence period. He had exercised coercive control over his partner, being loving one minute and lashing out verbally and physically the next.

On 17 February 2025, Easom’s partner tried to end the relationship. In response, Easom carried out a violent assault culminating in him pushing down on his partner’s head with such force that he broke her neck.

Alison Wolstenholme of the Crown Prosecution Service said:

“In a fit of rage, Robert Easom pushed his partner’s head down with such force that he broke her neck – changing her life forever.

“After years of coercive control, where he assaulted her, belittled her, tormented her and deliberately frightened her, he carried out a brutal assault when she tried to end the relationship.

“He attempted to evade responsibility for his actions, telling various lies about how his partner became injured. Later, he accepted causing the injuries which left the woman paralysed from the chest down, but claimed that he did not intend to cause serious harm. The evidence did not allow us to considering accepting that.

“The CPS was determined to see Easom face the full consequences of his actions, and we pushed for the case to go to trial. The jury saw through his lies and found him guilty of intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm.

“The incredible strength shown by the victim during this prosecution cannot be overstated. Her support has allowed us to bring the strongest possible case against a dangerous abuser and ensure he faces the full force of the law.”

Easom and the woman began their relationship some eight years before the life changing assault. It started well but over time, Easom became verbally abusive, criticising her and belittling her.

He could be very loving and made her believe that she had been overreacting to incidents where she was frightened and the relationship continued.

This was to be the pattern of Easom’s coercive control, loving one minute and abusive and violent the next.

The violence escalated. In 2021, Easom wrapped her head in a bedsheet, causing her to struggle for her breath. In January 2025, following a disagreement, he accelerated rapidly to frighten her and then performed an emergency stop just before a wall. He then headbutted her and scraped her face with his stubble.

The final incident occurred on 17 February 2025, when the woman tried to end the relationship, calmly telling Easom that it was for the best as they were arguing.

Easom flew into a rage. He started shouting, accusing her of causing an argument, pushed her forcefully against the headboard and grabbed her throat.

He then left the room and briefly returned, shouting “shut the f*** up” and pushing her head with such force that he broke her neck.

By the time he stopped, the damage had been done. After some convincing, he called an ambulance, lying to the operator and saying she had fallen out of bed.

She was taken to the Royal Preston Hospital where she was diagnosed with a broken neck. She had an operation to restore her spinal alignment, but the neurological damage rendered her tetraplegic and couldn’t be repaired.

Easom was arrested and gave a prepared statement during his police interview where he claimed they had been playfighting.

On the first day of his trial at Preston Crown Court, Easom pleaded guilty to two counts of actual bodily harm and one count of controlling or coercive behaviour. He admitted breaking his partner’s neck but denied that he had intended to do serious harm.

Following the trial, he was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison plus a four-year extended licence period at the same court on 27 February 2026.

Source: Ofcom published on this website Monday 23 February 2026 by Jill Powell

Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, sites that allow pornographic material must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from readily accessing that content.

Within days of this duty coming into force in July 2025, Ofcom launched investigations into the providers of dozens of adult sites, including 8579 LLC. These websites were prioritised based on their user numbers.

Following investigation, we have fined 8579 LLC £1.35 million for failing to comply with these age check requirements. The company must immediately implement highly effective age assurance or face a daily penalty of £1,000.

Gathering accurate information from companies is fundamental to our job of making life safer online for people in the UK. These requests can help us to assess and monitor industry compliance with their safety duties, and firms are required, by law, to respond in an accurate, complete and timely way.

For failing to abide by these requirements, we have also fined 8579 LLC £50,000. We will impose a daily penalty of £250 on the company until it responds, or for 60 days, whichever is sooner.

George Lusty, Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, said:

“We’ve been clear that adult sites must deploy robust age checks to protect children in the UK from seeing porn. Those that fail to do this – or ignore legally binding requests from us – should expect to face fines.”

Source: Home Office published on this website Thursday 26 February 2026 by Jill Powell

Victims and survivors of ‘honour’- based abuse will be kept safer through a new legal definition and guidance to help improve how frontline professionals support victims and pursue perpetrators.

Recent statistics show that nearly 3,000 ‘honour’- based abuse related offences were recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025. However, due to the hidden nature of ‘honour’- based abuse, this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, as it is believed many of these harrowing incidents and crimes go unreported.

A legal definition of ‘honour’- based abuse has been brought into the government’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill. Alongside a power to issue crucial statutory guidance for authorities, the new legal definition will help the police, social workers and other public authorities better support victims, and set clear expectations for professionals with safeguarding responsibilities in the handling of these cases.

It will also help stop vital information, which could hold perpetrators to account in a criminal trial, from falling through the cracks.

The move is supported by over 60 charities, including Karma Nirvana, which has campaigned for these reforms since the tragic murder of Fawziyah Javed in 2021.

Fawziyah, from Leeds and pregnant at the time, was brutally killed when her husband pushed her from Arthur’s Seat, in a case that showcased how harmful ideas of perceived ‘dishonour’ can lead to tragedy.

Fawziyah experienced domestic abuse which was compounded by ‘honour’- based abuse in the lead-up to her death, highlighting the need to improve the way that statutory systems recognise this form of abuse.

Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, said:

There is no honour in ‘honour’-based abuse.

For too long, these devastating crimes have often been misunderstood and victims badly let down.

Now we are tackling these crimes head on and bringing them out of the shadows. Introducing a new definition and important guidance into law will ensure professionals will work together to ensure more victims are protected and more perpetrators face justice.

‘Honour’-based abuse can include ‘honour’- motivated killings, female genital mutilation (FGM), and forced marriage, all which are crimes that often take place in deep secrecy.

The definition, alongside a power to issue statutory guidance, has been introduced via an amendment at Report stage of the Crime and Policing Bill in the House of Lords, making both measures law across England and Wales.

The bill aims to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system and drive forward the government’s highly ambitious missions to halve both knife crime and violence against women and girls within the next decade.

In addition, the Home Office is exploring the feasibility of a prevalence study for forced marriage and FGM, first announced in August, to better understand how widespread these crimes are, alongside a community engagement campaign encouraging victims to come forward.

These initiatives will help uncover the true scale of the abuse, ensure more victims receive the support they deserve, and bring the most dangerous offenders to justice.

The measures follow the publication of the VAWG Strategy in December, which unveils how every lever of the state is to be used to protect women and girls and halve VAWG crimes in a decade.

Source: Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published on this website Thursday 12 February 2026 by Jill Powell

A National child safeguarding review  Feb2026 has called for urgent action to better protect vulnerable unborn babies and infants, following the tragic death of baby Victoria Marten.

Baby Victoria was born in December 2022 and died in early 2023 after her parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, concealed her birth and deliberately evaded statutory services. In 2025 both of baby Victoria’s parents were convicted of gross negligence manslaughter, child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and concealing the birth of a child.

While the circumstances of baby Victoria’s death are very rare, the review finds that the professional challenges and systemic safeguarding issues involved are much more common. The review highlights multiple risks in baby Victoria’s family circumstances including several concealed pregnancies, repeated child removals, domestic abuse, poor engagement with services, serious offending, and frequent moves between different areas. Many of these issues appear repeatedly in serious safeguarding incidents.

More than 5,000 unborn babies and infants under the age of one were subject to child protection plans last year. Such huge volumes of vulnerable unborn babies and infants, and struggling parents, represent a lot of risk but also a lot of opportunity to intervene positively in family life.

The review concludes that baby Victoria’s death was not predictable but, given the repeating pattern of concealed pregnancies and child removals in the family history, baby Victoria needed professionals to think ahead and consider her safety even before she was conceived. A stronger focus on engaging with her parents and earlier coordinated action across all relevant services might have made a difference.

The review calls for clearer national guidance to ensure vulnerable unborn babies and infants are consistently considered within child protection frameworks, alongside stronger multi‑agency working and improved information‑sharing.

Key findings and recommendations include:

• Earlier and stronger pre‑birth safeguarding, including national guidance that explicitly includes vulnerable unborn babies and infants, and clearer protocols for responding to concealed or late‑disclosed pregnancies
• Trauma‑informed practice, to help reach families who do not engage with services, recognising that avoidance of services often reflects grief and mistrust rather than deliberate refusal
• Better engagement with and support for parents before and after child removal, to help break cycles of harm and reduce repeat risk
• A preventative ‘Think Family’ approach, bringing together adult and children’s services to provide a holistic view and identify issues that affect the whole family unit
• Stronger links between children’s social care and offender management services, especially when serious sex offenders are parents or carers
• Clearer arrangements when families move, including formal information transfer, shared chronologies and defined safeguarding responsibility

The review finds that agencies are often aware of multiple risks within families such as domestic abuse or parental disengagement but do not always assess and manage these risks together. It warns that without stronger coordination, opportunities to protect vulnerable unborn babies and infants can be missed.

The report calls on government to act urgently to strengthen national guidance, improve information‑sharing between agencies, and ensure that professionals have the time, skills and support needed to safeguard unborn babies and infants effectively.

Panel Chair, Sir David Holmes CBE said:

“Few tragedies are greater than the death of a baby, and baby Victoria’s is all the more devastating because her parents caused it.

“Baby Victoria lived in a family where there had been several concealed pregnancies, repeated child removals, domestic abuse, lack of engagement with services, serious offending and frequent moves. These are risks we see time and again in serious safeguarding incidents, and they are examined in depth in our review.

“While baby Victoria’s death was rare, her status as a vulnerable unborn baby and then a vulnerable infant is not. Last year, more than 5,000 unborn babies and infants under one were on child protection plans. Their parents are struggling, often disengaged from services, and many receive little support.

“A key lesson from baby Victoria’s story is clear: to protect vulnerable babies better, we must support their parents too. That may be hard to hear and hard to understand, but it is essential if we are to stop cycles of harm from repeating. Safeguarding professionals need the time, skills and resources to understand why families disengage and to address the underlying issues - whatever they may be  - domestic abuse, substance use, mental health, trauma after previous child removals or anything else.

“That is why we are calling for improved national guidance for safeguarding vulnerable unborn babies and infants, and better support for parents whose children are removed. These changes will help reduce future harm.

“We cannot prevent every act of extreme parental harm - but we can reduce the risks in families and help people to move forward. That must be baby Victoria’s legacy.”