Teacher and barrister who ran abusive home cannot be identified, high court rules
A primary school teacher smashed their adoptive children’s heads together, forced them to swallow soap and called one of them a “black bastard”,Their partner – a barrister who also sat as a deputy district judge in the family courts – repeatedly failed to protect the children from their campaign of abuse,But despite the findings, the high court has ruled that the couple cannot be identified after The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) led a legal attempt to name them in the public interest,Mrs Justice Theis said she had reached the “very difficult decision” after undertaking a careful balancing exercise between the rights of the media and the children’s right to privacy,To the outside world the couple, who adopted five children, portrayed a happy family image that they used to promote their respective careers.
But behind closed doors they ran a household controlled by what Theis described as an “undercurrent of fear”,The barrister, who specialised in children’s cases, was aware of the abuse but failed to intervene,The court found the children were subjected to physical assaults, denied proper meals and that a lock was placed on the pantry to stop them helping themselves to food,Punishments designed to humiliate included locking them outside the house without shoes on or making them stand against a wall,One child had his head flushed down the toilet and was referred to as “a disease”.
Another had his spectacles confiscated to prevent him from reading,Both parents deny the allegations but did not seek to challenge them,In a judgment published today Theis said the arguments put forward on each side relating to the issue of anonymity were compelling but was ultimately in the best interests of the children,At the heart of the case are three boys who find themselves back in the care system after suffering significant harm at the hands of their parents,Usually it is in the interests of children who have been the subject of abuse to keep the identity of their family confidential.
In this case however, there were welfare arguments put forward on behalf of the children in favour of naming the parents.These included that identifying them would serve to validate their experiences and refute anything later made public by the parents who dispute the allegations and previously threatened to “one day fight for justice”.Initially the guardian for the younger two boys, appointed by the court to represent their best interests, supported the naming of the parents in court judgments but shifted her position to neutral just over a week before a hearing in April.It came after the parents said they would be willing to have contact with the children on the condition their identities were protected.Previously they had been resolute about not seeing them despite being aware of the boys’ wishes to do so.
It was submitted there was significant public interest in naming the parents due to the jobs each had held during the time of the abuse.Both worked in roles that brought them into direct contact with children, while the judge was making important decisions about their welfare.Theis said the balancing exercise was “exquisitely poised” and that TBIJ had set out “powerful arguments” supported by other media organisations.However, she ultimately decided in favour of the children’s rights to privacy.She said their welfare needs were best achieved away from the glare of any publicity.
The two younger siblings left the family home in January 2024 and reported to police they had been abused by the teacher.The older sibling, who was separately represented in the court proceedings, and was already in foster care at that time, also disclosed abuse.One boy told police the teacher had pushed him against a wall, put their hands around his throat and threatened to kill him.He also said he had been made to wear shoes that were too small for him and that he’d been subjected to racial slurs, including the “N-word”.Theis said the children were caused further significant harm as a result of delays to the court process, caused “in very large part” to the conduct of the parents who said they suffered from fragile mental health.
A police investigation into the teacher and barrister, who were bailed after being arrested, was closed in July 2024 and no charges were brought.
The cyber-attack is costly and embarrassing. But M&S should pull through
Shouldn’t a robust IT system be able to withstand the odd “human error”, such as somebody at a third-party supplier being hoodwinked by devious cybercriminals? Isn’t £300m at the expensive end for these events? And should it really take four-and-a-half weeks, and counting, for one of the UK’s biggest and well-resourced retailers to restore its website to working order?The response of Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, Stuart Machin, to such questions ran along these lines: the incident had nothing to do with underinvestment in IT; everyone is vulnerable; M&S was unlucky; the “moment in time” will pass and everything will be back to normal by July at the latest.Too complacent? Marking his own homework? Well, before joining the chorus that says M&S should have been better prepared, one should probably say that assessing corporate responses to these cyber-attacks is impossible from the outside. M&S can’t share the full details of what happened, just as nobody ever does. One suspects its reaction was better than most, but there isn’t a league table to consult. We will have to wait to see what, if any, fine is dished out by the Information Commissioner’s Office for breaches of customers’ data
You would think after nearly three years of being wrong, the RBA might start to question its economics. But no | Greg Jericho
The decision by the Reserve Bank to cut rates on Tuesday was welcome and well overdue. While all signs point to more rates cuts to come, unfortunately the RBA remains wedded to the idea that we need more people to lose their jobs in order to keep inflation low.You might have missed it, but the inflation fight is now officially over.After every board meeting going back to October 2022, the RBA has issued a statement that ended by saying the bank remains “resolute in its determination to return inflation to target”.On Tuesday the bank changed the language, ending its statement by noting that “the Board is focused on its mandate to deliver price stability and full employment and will do what it considers necessary to achieve that outcome”
Most AI chatbots easily tricked into giving dangerous responses, study finds
Hacked AI-powered chatbots threaten to make dangerous knowledge readily available by churning out illicit information the programs absorb during training, researchers say.The warning comes amid a disturbing trend for chatbots that have been “jailbroken” to circumvent their built-in safety controls. The restrictions are supposed to prevent the programs from providing harmful, biased or inappropriate responses to users’ questions.The engines that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude – large language models (LLMs) – are fed vast amounts of material from the internet.Despite efforts to strip harmful text from the training data, LLMs can still absorb information about illegal activities such as hacking, money laundering, insider trading and bomb-making
‘Every person that clashed with him has left’: the rise, fall and spectacular comeback of Sam Altman
From Elon Musk to his own board, anyone who has come up against the OpenAI CEO has lost. In a gripping new account of the battle for AI supremacy, writer Karen Hao says we should all be wary of the power he now wieldsThe short-lived firing of Sam Altman, the CEO of possibly the world’s most important AI company, was sensational. When he was sacked by OpenAI’s board members, some of them believed the stakes could not have been higher – the future of humanity – if the organisation continued under Altman. Imagine Succession, with added apocalypse vibes. In early November 2023, after three weeks of secret calls and varying degrees of paranoia, the OpenAI board agreed: Altman had to go
Jim Irsay, longtime owner of NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, dies aged 65
Jim Irsay, longtime owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts and one of the NFL’s most recognizable figures, has died at age 65. The franchise announced that Irsay passed away peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday afternoon.“We are devastated to announce our beloved Owner & CEO, Jim Irsay, passed away peacefully in his sleep,” Colts chief operating officer Pete Ward said in a statement. “Jim’s dedication and passion for the Indianapolis Colts, in addition to his generosity, commitment to the community, and most importantly, his love for his family were unsurpassed.”Irsay, who took over full control of the team in 1997 following the death of his father Robert Irsay, presided over the most successful era in Colts history
Sophia Dunkley launches England into new era with win over West Indies in first T20
This opening match of the T20 series at Canterbury was supposed to be all about England: a first chance to assess how this team will fare under the new head coach, Charlotte Edwards, and new captain Nat Sciver-Brunt. And no doubt, Edwards will be pleased that her reign began with an eight-wicket win, especially as this was a homecoming of sorts for the former Kent captain.But while England experienced their first taste of victory in five months – spearheaded by a career-best unbeaten 81 from Sophia Dunkley, and featuring a wicket on debut for the 27-year-old Warwickshire seamer Em Arlott – there was only one star of Wednesday’s show: West Indies captain Hayley Matthews, who calmly brought up a century off the final ball of the visitors’ innings.An unbeaten 100 out of a team total of 146; 16 boundaries to Matthews while her teammates scored just five between them. Matthews is by now used to bearing the weight of the team she has captained for three years – epitomised by her refusal to take singles in the final over here, as she eyed up three figures – but the sensation is currently heightened by the mysterious absence of Deandra Dottin, who was omitted from the West Indies squad for this tour without explanation
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