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THE Shannon Matthews trial was halted yesterday following the prison attack last week on kidnap suspect Michael Donovan.

Donovan, 40, had sat through a morning of evidence on Friday, hours after being punched to the ground at Armley Jail by a lag.

Judge Mr Justice McCombe yesterday told the Leeds Crown Court jury about the attack for the first time and sent them home for 24 hours because Donovan needed more “medical attention”.

He added: “His counsel has asked that we don’t sit today for that to be allowed.”

The judge said the attack had “nothing to do with” the defendant and was something that “regrettably” happened on occasions in prison.

Donovan is alleged to have kidnapped Shannon, nine, in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorks, in February.

The court has heard he kept her in his flat for 24 days as part of a £50,000 reward sting with her mum Karen Matthews, 33.

Both deny kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting justice.

The trial continues today.


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David Cameron has ditched the Tories' promise to match Labour's planned spending up to 2011, insisting it was now unsustainable.

In a significant shift of policy, the Conservative leader said the Government's investment plans were based on "heroic assumptions" about the country's economic recovery.

"Labour's economic mismanagement makes it vital for the long-term health of our economy that we set a new path for restraining the growth of spending," he told reporters.

"That means for the year 2010/11 we need change, not more of the same.

"That means reducing planned government spending growth and not matching Labour's spending plans.

"To be absolutely clear - to stop future tax rises the growth rate of spending in 2010/11 will have to be lower than the growth rate laid out by Labour.

"The growth rates of spending in the years beyond 2010/11, pencilled in by the Chancellor last year, are also now unsustainably high."

Mr Cameron also warned that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's proposed "fiscal stimulus" was merely storing up tax rises for the years to come.

A £30 billion injection to the economy would mean an 8% rise in income tax later, he claimed.

Mr Cameron said recent forecasts meant the British economy could not withstand previous spending commitments without inflicting bigger tax rises on the public later.

-Nova

Inflation is now dropping at its fastest rate for 16 years thanks to falling fuel prices.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) - the Government's official benchmark of the cost of living - slowed to 4.5% in October from 5.2% the previous month.

The 0.7% decline - much bigger than economists expected - is the biggest monthly drop since April 1992, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

As crude oil prices plummet from their record highs of mid-July, the average price of a litre of petrol fell 7.1p to 104.5p in the month to October, with diesel dropping 7p to an average 116.3p.

Although CPI is still more than double the Bank of England's 2% target, the bigger-than-expected monthly fall brings home warnings of the threat of deflation - negative inflation - next year from Bank Governor Mervyn King and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Soaring food, energy and petrol costs have pushed the CPI to record highs this year but the latest lower figure also reflected falling meat prices in October as supermarkets cut prices, compared with 12 months earlier when costs were on the way up.

Meanwhile, the lower crude prices saw transport costs ease at their quickest rate for almost 20 years as the cost of sea and air transport as well as air fares fell.

The wider measure of inflation, the Retail Prices Index, fell to 4.2% in October from 5% the previous month - the biggest slowdown in the annual rate since January 1993.

Falling fuel costs also contributed to the decline but the RPI also includes house prices hit by the ailing property market.

Mr King warned in the Bank's latest inflation predictions last week that this rate was "very likely" to turn negative next year. The Bank has warned of a danger of undershooting the CPI's 2% target next year as prices fall in a looming recession - signalling the prospect of further rate cuts to come from the current 53-year low of 3%.

-Nova

One of the police officers who found Shannon Matthews has told her mother's trial that the little girl was frightened and crying when she emerged from the bed where she was hidden.

DC Paul Kettlewell told a jury at Leeds Crown Court that they were searching Michael Donovan's flat in Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, when they heard a child's voice.

He said the voice said: "Stop it, you're frightening me."

The officer went on: "Then I went into the bedroom. My colleague turned towards me and, as I was beginning to think perhaps the voice came from inside the bed, there was a noise inside the bed as a small girl started to emerge."

He described how other officers passed the nine-year-old to him.

He told the court: "She was frightened and she was crying."

Donovan, 40, and Shannon's mother Karen Matthews, 33, both deny kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

DC Kettlewell described how officers forced their way into the flat after no-one answered the door but neighbours assured them Donovan was inside.

-Nova

Plumbing and building supplies firm Wolseley has announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs and close more than 200 branches in the UK and Ireland.

The Reading-based firm, which trades as Plumb Center and Build Center, said the moves reflected its expectations for a further decline in trading. The company also shed 5,050 positions between August and the end of October, mainly in North America.

Wolseley, which operates more than 1,900 branches in the UK and Ireland, said the latest job cuts would be phased over the next few months,

Wolseley's headcount reduction is one of the biggest in recent days, after a raft of UK companies including BT, JCB, truckmaker Leyland, Virgin Media, Yell and GlaxoSmithKline all announced plans to shed labour.

The job cuts at Wolseley's UK and Ireland division are expected to reduce annual costs at the company by £80 million.

The pressure on Wolseley to reduce overheads was highlighted by first quarter figures, with group trading profits down 30% due to lower profitability at its UK and American operations.

Wolseley said revenues in the UK and Ireland division decreased by about 10% with trading profits down by around 65% in the three months to October 31.

The company said its building materials brands such as Build Center and Brooks in Ireland continued to be affected by the rapid deterioration in new residential construction.

The company's consumer-focused business Bathstore also reported a significant deterioration in revenues in the first quarter.

However, Wolseley said Plumb Center continued to show resilience, with more than two-thirds of revenues coming from the residential repair and maintenance market.

-Nova

Children's Secretary Ed Balls has announced new laws to protect vulnerable children - but he admitted they would not have saved Baby P's life.

The Government unveiled legislation that will require every local authority to set up a multi-agency Children's Trust Board.

Mr Balls said the new measures would bring a "strengthening of accountability" to child protection around the country.

But he added they would not solve the issues raised by the death of Baby P, who died in August last year after suffering over 50 injuries despite repeated visits by the authorities.

Haringey Council in north London is under fire for its handling of the case, which came seven years after Victoria Climbie was murdered in the same area.

Mr Balls said: "I don't think we are saying for a moment that the Children's Trust Boards and these measures would in themselves have prevented what happened in Haringey."

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes told a conference of directors of children's services in central London there was no other option.

She said: "We haven't got, I think, any feasible alternative Plan B for making these local arrangements be the way in which we protect our children."

Mr Balls played down growing calls for a public inquiry into Baby P's death, although he insisted he had not ruled it out.

He said the ongoing investigations into child protection in Haringey and across the country were the best way of responding to the tragedy, adding: "What people want is action rather than endless reviews."

-Nova

Lewd phone messages from Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand were a "very serious editorial lapse", the BBC's director-general said.

BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons said the corporation had "crossed a boundary" by broadcasting the messages left on actor Andrew Sachs's answerphone on Brand's Radio 2 show.

Facing questions by MPs in a Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing at the House of Commons, director-general Mark Thompson said: "I am very aware that this was a very serious editorial lapse. There were errors in judgment."

Sir Michael and Mr Thompson defended the corporation's actions in the aftermath of the scandal.

When criticised for "lamentable slowness", Sir Michael replied: "There was no lack of speed. This is something I do not accept. I refute and reject any allegations there were more actions the trust should have taken. The trust is doing its job of holding the executive to account."

The grilling was the second session held by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in its ongoing inquiry into the commercial operations of the BBC.

The terms of reference for the inquiry, published in July, include the benefits, opportunities and risks for the BBC undertaking a range of commercial activities in the UK and abroad. They also include the future of BBC Worldwide and other BBC commercial subsidiaries and how the money returned to the BBC by its commercial operations is invested.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham previously said the calls to Sachs were a "serious lapse of broadcasting standards" and the BBC management was "too slow" in recognising the seriousness of the situation.

Radio 2 boss Lesley Douglas also quit on October 30 and that was followed by the resignation of David Barber, the Radio 2 head of specialist music and compliance. It is thought Barber's job would have involved checking that content complied with BBC guidelines.

The BBC Trust will discuss the furore, which saw Brand quit and Ross suspended, when it meets later this week.

-Nova

The Government has launched a new campaign to ensure workers are paid the minimum wage, with a warning to rogue employers that they face tougher penalties.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said a small number of employers were "cheating" their workers, flouting the law and undercutting honest competitors.

He helped kickstart a roadshow in Downing Street which will visit 28 towns and cities across the UK in the coming months, giving workers advice on their entitlements and how to make a complaint if they have been underpaid.

The Government is cracking down on employers paying below the statutory hourly rate of £5.73 for workers aged 22 and over, £4.77 for 18 to 21-year-olds and £3.53 for those aged 16 and 17.

Employers will face unlimited fines from next year in the most serious cases instead of the current maximum limit of £5,000.

Lord Mandelson said he was proud to see the difference made to millions of workers by the minimum wage, adding: "More than one million workers benefited from its increase last month and it's important that we make sure everyone knows what they're entitled to - that's what this campaign is all about.

"Of course, most businesses treat staff fairly, but the small number who cheat their workers are flouting the law and undercutting honest competitors.

"Our changes will make sure everyone caught not paying their workers properly faces a stiff penalty - we are determined to ensure workers are paid fairly."

The roadshow, which will have facilities to report cases of abuse, will visit Cardiff, Bristol, Swansea, Edinburgh and Glasgow in November, Leeds, Huddersfield and Sheffield in December, Peterborough, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham and Newcastle in January and Plymouth, Portsmouth and London in February.

-Nova