Call handlers at the mental health helpline Samaritans are warning of a mass exodus of volunteers after the charity announced plans to close branches.

The ‘volunteer listeners’ say a shortage of people taking calls will lead to longer wait times to have them answered.

In July, Samaritans chief executive Julie Bentley said it was no longer sustainable to have so many branches.

In a video message to staff, seen by Sky News, she said: “Many of the branches we have today came into existence at a time when Samaritans was set up as a local service, providing separate local numbers. But that hasn’t been the case for some time.

“Our service today doesn’t need the number of buildings we currently have.”

Colm Martin, a volunteer listener for five years, said the announcement came “out of the blue”.

“We cannot make sense of it. This is supposed to be about improving a service and we can’t understand how closing half of all of the branches will improve the service or encourage more volunteers to come forward.”

Mr Martin says he thinks Samaritans will lose volunteers.

“Not because they want to leave, but because they’re forced out, because there isn’t a branch local to them that they can go to,” he said.

Last year, three million people called the Samaritans in need of support. Its website reads “every life lost to suicide is a tragedy”.

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About 23,000 trained volunteers work with the charity to listen and provide fast support to those experiencing suicidal thoughts as well as other mental health issues.

Ms Bentley told Sky News: “The improvements we’re proposing would mean callers getting through to Samaritans quicker while making it easier for anyone to join our amazing group of volunteers, regardless of their circumstances or busy lifestyles.

“Samaritans will continue to be there for those struggling to cope across the UK and Republic of Ireland, day and night, 365 days a year.”

Surbiton-based Angela remembers calling Samaritans for help 40 years ago when her father was dying of cancer.

“Whenever I reached out to any family member, they’d say ‘oh come on, you’re strong, you know what you’re doing. You’re a nurse’, she said.

“One night, I just reached an emotional limit. It was about two o’clock in the morning, and I thought ‘I’m going to burst here’.”

Angela says she cannot recall how long the call lasted but says it was answered quickly.

“He hardly spoke, he just let me empty all my thoughts and he listened,” she said. “That was so powerful to have someone just listening and not interrupting, not dismissing my feelings.”

The charity is set to vote on the proposed changes, which would take place over the next seven to 10 years, this weekend, although in Ireland the consultation process is not due to start until 2027.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.

Alternatively, you can call Mind’s support line on 0300 102 1234, or NHS on 111.

Hackers who claimed to have stolen pictures, names and addresses of over 8,000 children in a cyber attack on a nursery chain have told Sky News they will release the profiles of more children and employees.

The group, calling itself Radiant, had posted images of children attending the Kido nursery chain in London on the dark web and demanded a ransom from the company.

So far, the information released has been restricted to the personal contact details of children who attend the nurseries, as well as their parents and carers.

Radiant has told Sky News they intend to imminently release a new set of data, including the profiles of 30 more children and 100 employees.

It said the release would include the personal information of the employees including “full names, national insurance numbers, DOBs [date of births], full addresses, employment start date, email addresses and more”.

The stolen information on the children includes medical records, incident reports and the allocation of drugs and medicine given to the children.

The group claimed it typically demands around 1.5% of a company’s yearly revenue in ransom.

Sky News understands the group has not received any money from the Kido nursery group.

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On Thursday, parents whose children attend a Kido nursery branch told Sky News they had received an email confirming the data incident and had been offered reassurance by the company.

An Information Commissioner’s Office spokesperson said: “Kido International has reported an incident to us and we are assessing the information provided.”

The Metropolitan Police said they “received a referral on Thursday, 25 September, following reports of a ransomware attack on a London-based organisation”.

They said enquiries are at the early stages and no arrests have been made.

Ciaran Martin, former chief of the National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of the GCHQ spy agency, told Sky News presenter Samantha Washington he believes the nursery chain should not pay the ransom.

“This data is not coming back. That’s the bit that isn’t reassuring. There is no way of guaranteeing the suppression of this data,” he said, adding hacking groups often sell the data on to other criminals or use it for scams or fraud.

“And when law enforcement get to this group, even if the nursery pays the ransom, they’ll find the data – they won’t delete it. They never do. So it won’t achieve anything.”

Recent high-profile victims of cyber criminals in the UK include retail giant Marks and Spencer, which lost an estimated £300m in a ransomware attack earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the government has been urged to step in this week to support suppliers affected by a cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover, after the car-making firm was forced to halt production at the end of August.

A Kido spokesperson said: “We recently identified and responded to a cyber incident. We are working with external specialists to investigate and determine what happened in more detail.

“We swiftly informed both our families and the relevant authorities and continue to liaise closely with them.”

A nursery worker who mistreated 21 children in her care, including kicking one boy in the face, has been jailed for eight years.

Roksana Lecka was caught on CCTV pinching, punching and kicking her victims while working at the now closed Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, southwest London.

The 22-year-old was also seen aggressively covering a young boy’s mouth as he started to cry, in a pattern of behaviour described as “exceptional cruelty”. In one incident, she kicked a little boy in the face several times.

Lecka, of Hounslow, had previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of cruelty towards a person under the age of 16.

A jury at Kingston Crown Court convicted her of another 14 counts in June following a trial. She was found not guilty of three further counts of child cruelty.

Metropolitan Police detectives reviewed CCTV from a number of days in June 2024 that showed her pinching and scratching children under their clothes – on their arms, legs and stomachs.

Several of the children were seen being pinched dozens of times over the course of a day. Most cried and flinched away from Lecka.

Lecka could be seen vaping in another clip before taking a baby from a crib, who she was later filmed pinching and punching her side.

Several parents of the children who had been under Lecka’s care reported unusual injuries and bruising in March and May 2024.

When footage of the incidents was played in court, there were gasps from parents in the public gallery – some who were watching it for the first time.

Other instances of abuse included kicking a child who was on the floor, pushing children headfirst over cots, shoving a child onto a mattress in a sleep room, and aggressively covering a toddler’s mouth as he started to cry.

Parents call Lecka ‘worst kind of human’

Giving victim impact statements to the court, the parents of the children described Lecka as the “worst kind of human”.

And handing down a sentence, Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC told her: “You committed multiple acts of gratuitous violence.”

After describing the violence against the children, she added: “When you committed these acts of cruelty, you would look at the other members of staff to make sure that they were not watching you.

“Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain, causing the child to cry, arch, try to get away or writhe around in distress.

“Time after time, you calmly watched the pain and suffering you have caused. Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic.”

Lawyers call for ‘further answers’ on abuse

Jemma Till, the expert lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing families, said after sentencing that Lecka “abused her position of trust in cruellest way over a number of months”.

She then said that “serious questions remain as to how Lecka’s abuse was allowed to go unchecked for several months”, before adding: “Our focus is now on securing families, who will continue to be affected by Lecka’s actions for years to come, with the further answers they deserve.”

The parents of a child that Lecka admitted to assaulting also said through the law firm that “trying to come to terms with what our child suffered, has been incredibly difficult”.

“Whilst we’re relieved Lecka has been stopped and dealt with by the courts, the effects of what happened still impact on our family,” they said.

“We’re now nervous about letting our child out of our sight and into the care of others, a position no parent should find themselves in.”

Lecka ‘didn’t appear bothered’ during questioning

The Metropolitan Police noted that one of the charges against Lecka related to an incident at Little Munchkins in Hounslow, and said she appeared “visibly bored” during a police interview.

Detective Inspector Sian Hutchings, the senior investigating officer in the case, told the PA news agency that the former nursery worker has “never given any explanation for her behaviour and what she’s done”.

During Lecka’s police interview, she gave no comment answers and “didn’t appear bothered by the seriousness of the allegations”, Ms Hutchings said.

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Gemma Burns, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said in a statement after sentencing that Lecka “repeatedly showed exceptional cruelty in her appalling treatment of these babies”.

She said: “No parent should have to fear leaving their child in the care of professionals, but the sheer scale of her abuse is staggering.

“Lecka was placed in a position of trust and her job required her to provide safety and protection.”