A man accused of murdering Katie Kenyon, who has been missing since she was spotted getting into a van a week ago, will stand trial on 14 November.
Mother-of-two Ms Kenyon, 33, was last seen in the Ford Transit in Burnley, Lancashire, on the morning of 22 April.
Police, who believe she is no longer alive, said a reported sighting of the van led them to prioritise a search in a wooded area in the Forest of Bowland.
Andrew Burfield, 50 and of Burnley, appeared at Preston Crown Court.
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Mr Burfield, of Todmorden Road, was remanded in custody.
On Thursday, additional forensic searches were being carried out at a particular area in the Forest of Bowland to determine whether it could be linked to Ms Kenyon's disappearance, Lancashire Police said.
The force said Ms Kenyon's family was aware of the development.
Searches were carried out the previous day in parts of Gisburn Forest in the Ribble Valley, with more than 60 specialist officers from four forces scouring the dense woodland.
Fire service officers, dog teams, mounted police, mountain rescue volunteers and drones were also being used in the searches.
Ms Kenyon's family had earlier said her disappearance was out of character.
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A serving Met Police officer has been charged with rape.
PC Ireland Murdock allegedly attacked his victim in Lambeth while he was off duty on 25 September last year.
He was arrested on 11 January and will appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on Friday.
PC Murdock has been suspended from duties. The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed, as has the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Specialist officers are supporting PC Murdock's alleged victim, Scotland Yard said.
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A government plan to allow asylum cases to be processed overseas will become law, after MPs and peers passed it just in time to beat the cut-off point.
Parliament was suspended on Thursday, and legislation had to be approved by then or be thrown out.
The Nationality and Borders Bill passed on Wednesday night, ending months of rows between the Lords and the Commons over its likely impact on refugees.
Controversial changes to elections and the justice system also passed.
Parliament has been prorogued, or suspended, so the government can lay out its plans for the next year or so when it returns for the Queen's Speech on 10 May.
Bills - which must be approved in every detail by both the Commons and Lords - had to be passed or discarded by the time Thursday's proceedings ended, except for a select few which were "carried over" to the next parliamentary session.
Contentious provisions in the Nationality and Borders Bill included offshoring asylum - handling claims at overseas facilities - and making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally.
The Lords has repeatedly amended the legislation and sent it back to the Commons, where MPs - the majority of whom are Conservatives - have overturned the changes.
This back-and-forth, known as parliamentary "ping-pong", ended on Wednesday when, following an occasionally bad-tempered debate, the Lords backed the bill.
Home Secretary Priti Patel called it "a huge milestone in our commitment to our promise to the British public" of an improved immigration system.
She added: "While there is no single solution to the global migration crisis, these new laws are the first step in overhauling our decades-old, broken asylum system.
"We will now work tirelessly to deliver these reforms to ensure we have an immigration system that protects those in genuine need while cracking down on abuse of the system and evil people-smuggling gangs."
But there were cries of "shame" from some peers when the legislation passed.
Liberal Democrat Lord Paddick said he was "appalled" and "disgusted" by the bill, while Labour former shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti accused the Commons of giving "two fingers" to the Lords.
More than 200 organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, said they would challenge its outcomes, calling it "anti-refugee".
In a statement, they said the new law "rips up internationally recognised rights for people fleeing war and persecution, and will criminalise thousands of refugees".
But it has said a "firm but fair" asylum system is needed to tackle people-smuggling gangs and reduce deaths among people making dangerous cross-Channel journeys in small boats.
Justice and elections bills
Peers also backed down from their row with the Commons over the Elections Bill.
This includes the introduction of photo ID for voters, which it is feared could see a significant number of people turned away from polling stations.
Other measures include parliamentary oversight of the Electoral Commission, which monitors and runs the voting system, and scrapping the 15-year limit on British citizens living overseas being able to vote from abroad.
Labour's Baroness Hayman said the government had "simply got it wrong on requiring voter ID" and was "undermining of the independence of the Electoral Commission".
Liberal Democrat Lord Wallace of Saltaire said: "One of the many adverse affects of this bill is that it makes it much easier, and without barriers, for overseas citizens to vote, but makes it more difficult for domestic citizens to vote. That's very odd, and not entirely democratic."
But Cabinet Office minister Lord True said the government did not have a "static position" on which forms of ID could be used to access polling stations.
Other bills
The Judicial Review and Courts Bill also went through after peers dropped a last-ditch attempt to fund bereaved families' legal representation at inquests involving public bodies.
The government said the inclusion of the clause to this effect was "premature", as there was an ongoing consultation on legal aid access.
Some bills have been carried over, meaning they can continue their progress in the next parliamentary session, rather than being ditched.
These include Online Safety Bill, regulating online companies and the Product Safety and Telecommunications Bill, which would extend 5G coverage
The Higher Education Bill, which would places a duty on universities in England to ensure free speech, and the Animal Welfare Bill, which seeks to crack down on puppy smuggling, have also been carried over.
A drug addict mother has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter of her asthmatic son who died alone and "gasping for air" in a garden.
Laura Heath "prioritised her addiction to heroin and crack cocaine" prior to the "needless, premature" death of seven-year-old Hakeem Hussain on Sunday 26 November 2017, Coventry Crown Court heard during her trial.
The 40-year-old, formerly of Long Acre in Nechells, Birmingham, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after her "frail" son died in the home of a friend where they had been staying.
Mr Justice Dove said Hakeem's death was the result of Heath's "catastrophic and deplorable" parenting.
He told Heath the death had occurred after her life "entered a drug-fuelled downward spiral into squalor, chaos and tragedy".
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The judge said: "When Hakeem Hussain died in the early hours of the morning he was only seven years old.
"It is clear that in his tragically short life he had been an inspiration of happiness and affection for people who knew him.
"All of that potential for a wonderful and fulfilling life was cut short, extinguished as he collapsed on his own suffocating, clutching a leaf in the garden.
"The truth is that Hakeem died as a result of your deplorable negligence. You had allowed your life to be completely overtaken by your addiction to heroin and cocaine. His death was needless, tragic and a result of your abject failure as his mother."
Images shown in court revealed how Heath, who had a £55-a-day drug habit, had modified one of her son's inhalers with foil and an elastic band so she could use it to smoke crack.
Heath had admitted four counts of child cruelty before the trial, including failing to provide proper medical supervision and exposing Hakeem to the smoke of asthma triggers; heroin, crack and cigarettes.
Image:Heath modified a blue inhaler with foil and an elastic band so she could use it to smoke crack
School nurse warned Hakeem could 'die at the weekend'
During the trial it emerged that school nurse Melanie Richards had warned a child protection conference Hakeem could "die at the weekend" just two days before his death.
Health, education and social workers at the conference voted to protect Hakeem.
However, the meeting ended with an agreement that the family's social worker would speak to Heath about the outcome on the Monday - by which time Hakeem had died.
Neelam Ahmed, a family outreach worker at the boy's school, told jurors how she had voted at that meeting "to take Hakeem immediately into care".
Both Ms Richards and Ms Ahmed scored Hakeem's safety as "zero" out of 10.
After the verdict Andy Couldrick, chief executive of Birmingham Children's Trust, said social workers missed "clear opportunities" to prevent the boy's death.
The jury also heard how Heath had previously had other children taken into care.
A serious case review into agencies' contact with Hakeem is set to be published within weeks.
Image:Police released images of the home where Laura Heath lived with her son in Birmingham
'Disgusting' conditions inside home
During the trial jurors heard how Heath had been living in a home on Long Acre since 2013, with one visitor describing the conditions as "disgusting".
The same witness told how Hakeem said he had no bed and slept instead on the sofa, while there was evidence Heath used an upstairs bedroom for sex work to fund her habit, with a basket of condoms next to the mattress.
In the days before Hakeem's death, Heath had recently started staying with a friend, Timothy Busk, who lived in a flat a short walk away in Cook Street.
One visitor described the inside as "foggy and smoky" and a "mess," the court heard.
Image:A witness told the court Hakeem would sleep on the sofa rather than in bed
Heath smoked three bags of heroin on night before death
Heath told police on the night before her son died that she smoked three bags of heroin - two before Hakeem went to bed at 10.30pm and one afterwards, leaving her in a drug-induced sleep.
Mr Busk woke Heath up at 7.37am on Sunday 26 November 2017 and told her he had found Hakeem dead in the garden and had carried his gaunt body to the sofa.
Heath phoned 999 and later told police: "Hakeem was freezing and his lips were blue.
"Hakeem would go out when he was unwell and must have fallen asleep (when outside).
"I just suspect he didn't wake me up, took himself to get fresh air and then probably fell asleep."
In the early hours a neighbour had heard tapping at his window but saw nothing in the darkness after going downstairs to investigate.
At the opening of the trial the Crown said Heath "failed to administer" any "preventer" asthma medication in the two days before Hakeem died, and did not have access to a spacer device, used to get more drugs into a child's lungs.
Police searches found part of a spacer amid mouldy food, over-filled ashtrays and drug paraphernalia in Long Acre.
A man has appeared in court charged with murdering four members of a family at a home in south-east London.
Samantha Drummonds, 27, her mother Tanysha Drummonds, 45, grandmother Dolet Hill, 64, and Ms Hill's partner Denton Burke, 68, were found by officers with stab wounds on Monday.
Worried neighbours had called police to the home in Delaford Road, Bermondsey.
Joshua Jacques, 28, appeared before Westminster magistrates where a hearing was set for the Old Bailey on 3 May.
Mr Jacques, of Lewisham, was remanded into custody.
NHS worker
Earlier this week, Ms Hill's niece Venecia Reid paid tribute to her aunt, saying she "didn't deserve this".
"She was very loving, very kind, very generous, she'd do anything for you," Ms Reid said.
Tanysha Drummonds, who was also known as Rachquel, lived in Kennington and was previously named by police as Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo.
Her daughter, Samantha, lived in Forest Hill.
Jamaican-born NHS worker Ms Hill and partner Mr Burke lived at the terraced property where the four were found dead.
MPs should avoid parliament’s bars and go home instead to reduce the “poisonous” culture of inappropriate and sexist behaviour, the defence secretary has said.
Ben Wallace said that there is a “problem with the overall culture” in parliament after two female Tory MPs said that they had seen a male colleague watching pornography on their phone in the House of Commons.
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Wallace told Times Radio: “The fundamental problem of Westminster is the overall culture that hundreds and hundreds of people are working long hours in a place with bars and that mix becomes poisonous.
Ben Wallace said that long working hours and alcohol are a bad mix
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“We see all sorts of problems, and that’s been going on for decades and it’s not easy to fix. We’ve seen lots of problems in the bars over the decades. We’ve
The government broke the law by discharging untested hospital patients into care homes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the High Court has ruled.
The case was brought by Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris whose fathers, Michael Gibson and Donald Harris, died after testing positive for coronavirus.
In a ruling on Wednesday, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham concluded that policies contained in documents released in March and early April 2020 were unlawful because they failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of the virus.
They said that, despite there being "growing awareness" of the risk of asymptomatic transmission during March 2020, there was no evidence that Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, addressed the issue of the risk to care home residents of such transmission.
The SAGE scientific advisory group said "asymptomatic transmission cannot be ruled out" in early February.
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But government documents show there was no requirement for hospital patients to be tested for COVID, before being transferred to care homes, until mid-April.
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PM responds to care home ruling
Dr Gardner, whose father died at the age of 88 in a care home in Bicester, Oxfordshire, in April 2020, said in a statement after the ruling: "My father, along with tens of thousands of other elderly and vulnerable people, tragically died in care homes in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I believed all along that my father and other residents of care homes were neglected and let down by the government."
A barrister representing Dr Gardner and Ms Harris told the judges that more than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents had died from COVID-19 in England and Wales between March and June 2020.
Jason Coppel QC said the fathers of both Dr Gardner and Ms Harris were part of that "toll".
"The care home population was known to be uniquely vulnerable to being killed or seriously harmed by COVID-19," said Mr Coppel in a written case outline.
"The government's failure to protect it, and positive steps taken by the government which introduced COVID-19 infection into care homes, represent one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era."
Image:Cathy Gardner, left, and Fay Harris, right, took High Court action against the government
Mr Coppel told judges: "That death toll should not and need not have happened."
He added: "Put together, the various policies were a recipe for disaster and disaster is what happened."
Mr Coppel said other countries, particularly in the Far East, had shown the way to safeguard residents by stopping the virus getting into care homes.
Mr Hancock's spokesman said the High Court found he acted reasonably but Public Health England "failed to tell ministers what they knew about asymptomatic transmission" of COVID-19 and "Mr Hancock has frequently stated how he wished this had been brought to his attention earlier".
Lawyers representing Health Secretary Sajid Javid, NHS England and Public Health England had fought the claim the government acted unlawfully by failing to protect care homes.
This ruling lays down a marker for future government responses to health emergencies
The government's failure to protect elderly and vulnerable residents inside care homes is the single biggest scandal of the UK response to the pandemic. Tens of thousands of our most at risk community were left exposed to a killer virus that we knew would target them first. The government says it had to take action to protect the NHS and increase capacity so it would not be overwhelmed by the emerging global health crisis.
But, and this is important, when concerns were voiced about discharging patients who might be carrying the virus into these care homes, those warnings were dismissed. We were told repeatedly by the government that it had thrown a "ring of steel" around these care homes. We know now that happened far too late. Tens of thousands of these vulnerable residents died as a result of the government’s unlawful action.
We carried out our own investigation to find out what had happened during the spring of 2020. We sent Freedom Of Information requests to 143 NHS Trusts. Of these 59 responded. We learned 6435 people were discharged from hospital into a care home between 19 March and 15 April. Two thirds of these patients (4210) did not have a COVID-19 test during their stay or at discharge. Of those who were tested 623 were positive. NHS Trusts confirmed to Sky that there were patients who were discharged with a positive test result.
The High Court judgement is the first time the government has been held to account for its handling of the pandemic. It comes ahead of any inquiry. It brings a sense of justice to the two women who took the government to court. Dr Cathy Gardener lost her father Michael and Fay Harris' father Don died of COVID while living as residents in a care home. It will bring comfort to tens of thousands of grieving families who have demanded answers from the government. It also puts down a marker for future government responses to emerging health emergencies. There is also now the very really possibility of compensation claims.
Dr Cathy Gardener told me right after the judgment was handed down that she wants and apology from the prime minister and she wants him to resign. She has always insisted government policy was responsible for Michael’s death. The High Court agrees.
Sir James Eadie QC, who represented Mr Javid and Public Health England, said the women's claim should be dismissed.
"This is a judicial review challenge to six specific policies made in the early stage of the pandemic," he told judges.
"As the evidence demonstrates, the defendants worked (and continue to work) tirelessly to seek to protect the public from the threat to life and health posed by the most serious pandemic in living memory, and specifically sought to safeguard care homes and their residents."
He added: "The lawfulness of the decisions under challenge must be assessed in the context of the unprecedented challenge faced by the government and the NHS at that time, in particular March and April 2020."
Eleanor Grey QC, who represented NHS England, also argued that the claim should be dismissed.
A government spokeswoman said: "Every death is a tragedy and we worked tirelessly to protect the public from the threat to life and health posed by the pandemic and specifically sought to safeguard care homes and their residents.
"We have provided billions of pounds to support the sector, including on infection and prevention control, free PPE and priority vaccinations - with the vast majority of eligible care staff and residents now vaccinated."
