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A five-year-old girl had been lured into a car and taken away. That was at 19:30. It was now past midnight and there was no clue about where she might have been taken.

Det Ch Insp Steve Binks, of Northumbria Police, said: "Experience tells us that in cases like this, we can be looking at a murder.

"And then at half past midnight, she turns up 50 miles away in Darlington. She was alive, but we were clearly dealing with a very dangerous man."

It was May 1995. The girl had been taken from the Blakelaw area of Newcastle and was found, wearing only a coat and shoes, by a taxi driver.

On 7 February the Daily Mail carried a report of a court clerk who was caught watching hard-core pornography on his monitor by a judge. What makes the case even more disturbing – if that is possible – is the fact that he perused the images DURING A RAPE TRIAL, while the victim was giving evidence.

Debasish Majumder looked at photographs of topless women being gagged and couples engaged in sexual acts, Kingston Crown Court was told. Majumder, who had worked at Inner London Crown Court for a number of years, later admitted routinely watching porn while trials were taking place, the report added.

Prosecutor Annabel Darlow said: “Majumder was working as a court clerk at Inner London and his conduct constituted a wholesale abuse of his position and the equipment provided in that he viewed porn sites on his court computer whilst the court was engaged in the conduct of a trial on an allegation of rape.”

The Bath man accused in the 2000 murder of a housemate wants Northampton County Court to approve paying for a forensic anthropologist who would assist in his defense.

Advances in neuroscience suggest the age of criminal responsibility - 10 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - might be too low, according to a study.

The Royal Society report considers areas where recent scientific findings could have an impact on the law.