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A childminder has been jailed for 12 years and seven months for killing a nine-month-old boy by shaking him to death in frustration.

Karen Foster, who was due to go on trial for the murder of nine-month-old Harlow Collinge, pleaded guilty to the charge of manslaughter last Friday after discussions with the child’s family.

The basis of the 62-year-old’s plea was that “forceful shaking” of Harlow caused his death after he had toppled over out of his high chair, started crying and she shook him in frustration, Preston Crown Court heard.

Mr Justice Barry Cotter said in court that Harlow was a “happy, healthy, much-loved” boy, but said Foster chose to continue childminding despite ill health and pain in her hip.

He noted she worked more than she should have under Ofsted rules and said this contributed to her “loss of temper”, before adding: “You should have been a safe pair of hands to which Gemma Collinge could ensure her precious child.

“I have no doubt you snapped on the 1 March 2022, in part due to the fact that you were not coping with the demands of caring for four children. You lost your temper and he was on the receiving end.

“You shook an [almost] ten-month-old child so violently to cause devastating injuries. His death was caused in the course of an assault.”

Harlow’s relatives shouted “scumbag bitch” and “I hate you” to Foster as she was led away from the dock.

Karen Foster. Pic: Lancashire Police via PA
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Karen Foster. Pic: Lancashire Police via PA

‘He was a happy smiling baby’

In a statement she read in court, Gemma Collinge said: “How do I explain losing my son in such horrific circumstances? Harlow was enjoying his little life. He was a happy smiling baby.”

She shared her “guilt” about having made arrangements to move him to a nursery six weeks after first using Foster as a childminder over her concerns about the number of children being looked after by the 62-year-old.

Ms Collinge then spoke about “all the red flags I missed,” before telling the court that Foster tried to comfort her at the hospital and claimed Harlow had choked on pasta.

“She even put her arms around me. I can’t think of anything more evil. It is despicable,” she said.

“I blame myself every day for my son’s death. This monster, Karen Foster, deserves nothing. I hope her actions haunt her.”

Harlow died in hospital after emergency services were called to reports of a child in cardiac arrest at a property in Hapton, Burnley, in Lancashire on 1 March 2022.

Harlow Collinge. Pic: gofundme
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Gemma Collinge told the court Karen Foster initially claimed Harlow had choked on pasta. Pic: GoFundMe

Baby’s skin ‘purple’

Harlow had been dropped off at Foster’s address – a registered childminder with nine years’ experience – in March 2022.

Later that day she called 999 and told the operator Harlow was not breathing, and went on to tell a paramedic he had suddenly collapsed, the court heard.

“I think he’s choking, he’s had like a fit and he’s not breathing,” she had said.

By 1.23pm, Harlow’s skin was purple and mottled, he had no pulse, was not breathing and his pupils were fixed, the court heard.

The baby was then rushed to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, but died four days later.

A CT scan of the infant’s head showed significant injuries to the brain, with bleeding on both sides and swelling.

A post-mortem listed the cause of death as inflicted traumatic brain injury.

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Foster made benefit claims for injury

Anne Whyte KC, prosecuting, said when she first registered in 2014, Foster did not say she was married and lived with her husband, or that she sometimes sought help with childminding from other unregistered individuals, or that her health was poor.

She told the court Foster had made two benefit claims for Personal Independence Payments in 2018 and 2022, where she claimed she felt constantly drowsy and tired, and that sometimes she could barely move or safely carry out daily living activities.

The childminder submitted the same claims in her 2022 application, which she made just days before Harlow’s death.

She also suggested she needed help cooking and going to the toilet.

Foster minded 10 children

Ms Whyte also said that a mother whose children were being looked after by Foster complained to Ofsted in December 2021, saying she was looking after too many children, on some occasions up to 10 youngsters.

But Foster told the regulator she did not exceed the permitted number of children and lied to other parents that she had been a nurse and her husband was also a registered childminder.

Her registration permitted her to care for a maximum of six children under the age of eight years.

Only three of the six could be “young” children – defined as young until September 1 following their fifth birthday – and only one child could be under the age of one.

On certain days, Foster was exceeding the ratio permitted by Ofsted, the court heard.

Foster also faced a further allegation of assaulting a two-year-old girl in her care in 2019.

The prosecution told the judge it will ask for that count to lie on file.

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UK on ‘slippery slope’ to ‘death on demand’, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warns ahead of assisted dying vote

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UK on 'slippery slope' to 'death on demand', Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warns ahead of assisted dying vote

The UK is on a “slippery slope towards death on demand”, according to the justice secretary ahead of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying.

In a letter to her constituents, Shabana Mahmood said she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation.

“Sadly, recent scandals – such as Hillsborough, infected blood and the Post Office Horizon – have reminded us that the state and those acting on its behalf are not always benign,” she wrote.

“I have always held the view that, for this reason, the state should serve a clear role. It should protect and preserve life, not take it away.

“The state should never offer death as a service.”

Analysis: Justice secretary’s intervention is potentially embarrassing for the PM

On 29 November, MPs will be asked to consider whether to legalise assisted dying, through Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

Details of the legislation were published last week, including confirmation the medicine that will end a patient’s life will need to be self-administered and people must be terminally ill and expected to die within six months.

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Minister ‘leans’ to assisted dying bill

Ms Mahmood, however, said “predictions about life expectancy are often inaccurate”.

“Doctors can only predict a date of death, with any real certainty, in the final days of life,” she said. “The judgment as to who can and cannot be considered for assisted suicide will therefore be subjective and imprecise.”

Read more: Gordon Brown says assisted dying should not be legalised

Under the Labour MP’s proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.

The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.

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Details of end of life bill released

Read more: Where does the cabinet stand on assisted dying?

However, Ms Mahmood said she was concerned the legislation could “pressure” some into ending their lives.

“It cannot be overstated what a profound shift in our culture assisted suicide will herald,” she wrote.

“In my view, the greatest risk of all is the pressure the elderly, vulnerable, sick or disabled may place upon themselves.”

Kim Leadbeater waits to present the Assisted Dying Bill. File pic: House of Commons/Reuters
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Kim Leadbeater waits to present the Assisted Dying Bill. File pic: House of Commons/Reuters

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who put forward the bill, said some of the points Ms Mahmood raised have been answered “in the the thorough drafting and presentation of the bill”.

“The strict eligibility criteria make it very clear that we are only talking about people who are already dying,” she said.

“That is why the bill is called the ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’; its scope cannot be changed and clearly does not include any other group of people.

“The bill would give dying people the autonomy, dignity and choice to shorten their death if they wish.”

In response to concerns Ms Mahmood raised about patients being coerced into choosing assisted death, Ms Leadbeater said she has consulted widely with doctors and judges.

“Those I have spoken to tell me that they are well equipped to ask the right questions to detect coercion and to ascertain a person’s genuine wishes. It is an integral part of their work,” she said.

In an increasingly fractious debate around the topic, multiple Labour MPs have voiced their concerns.

In a letter to ministers on 3 October, the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case confirmed “the prime minister has decided to set aside collective responsibility on the merits of this bill” and that the government would “therefore remain neutral on the passage of the bill and on the matter of assisted dying”.

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Justice secretary’s assisted dying intervention is explosive – and potentially embarrassing for PM

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Justice secretary's assisted dying intervention is explosive - and potentially embarrassing for PM

With six days to go before Friday’s historic Commons showdown on assisted dying, it’s the opponents who are turning up the heat.

The explosive attack on the bill by Shabana Mahmood follows the poignant and personal plea from Gordon Brown to MPs to reject the bill.

We knew the justice secretary is opposed to the bill. She has already made that clear. But her attack on it, in a letter to constituents, is brutal.

Read more: UK on ‘slippery slope’ to ‘death on demand’, warns justice secretary

She talks about a “slippery slope towards death on demand”. Savage. The state should “never offer death as a service”, she says. Chilling.

So much for Sir Keir Starmer attempting to cool the temperature in the row by urging cabinet ministers, whatever their view, to stop inflaming or attempting to influence the debate.

Ms Mahmood talks, as other opponents have, about pressure on the elderly, sick or disabled who feel they have “become too much of a burden to their family”.

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Details of end of life bill released

She hits out at a “lack of legal safeguards” in the bill and pressure on someone into ending their life “by those acting with malign intent”.

Malign intent? Hey! That’s quite an assertion from a secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor who’s been urged by the PM to tone down her language.

It’s claimed that Sir Keir ticked off Wes Streeting, the health secretary, after he publicly opposed the bill and launched an analysis of the costs of implementing it.

Read more: Where does the cabinet stand on assisted dying?

Will the justice secretary now receive a reprimand from the boss? It’s a bit late for that. Critics will also claim Sir Keir’s dithering over the bill is to blame for cabinet ministers freelancing.

Shabana Mahmood is the first elected Muslim woman to hold a cabinet post. Elected to the Commons in 2010, she was also one of the first Muslim women MPs.

She told her constituents in her letter that it’s not only for religious reasons that she’s “profoundly concerned” about the legislation, but also because of what it would mean for the role of the state.

But of course, she’s not the only senior politician with religious convictions to speak out strongly against Kim Leadbeater’s bill this weekend.

Gordon Brown. File pic: PA
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Gordon Brown. File pic: PA

Gordon Brown, son of the manse, who was strongly influenced by his father, a Church of Scotland minister, wrote about his opposition in a highly emotional article in The Guardian.

He spoke about the pain of losing his 10-day-old baby daughter Jennifer, born seven weeks prematurely and weighing just 2lb 4oz, in January 2002, after she suffered a brain haemorrhage on day four of her short life.

Read more: Gordon Brown says assisted dying should not be legalised

Mr Brown said that tragedy convinced him of the value and imperative of good end-of-life care, not the case for assisted dying. His powerful voice will strongly influence many Labour MPs.

And what of Kim Leadbeater? It’s looking increasingly as though she’s now being hung out to dry by the government, after initially being urged by the government to choose assisted dying after topping the private members bill ballot.

All of which will encourage Sir Keir’s critics to claim he looks weak. It is, or course, a private members bill and a free vote, which makes the outcome on Friday unpredictable.

But the dramatic interventions of the current lord chancellor and the former Labour prime minister are hugely significant, potentially decisive – and potentially embarrassing for a prime minister who appears to be losing control of the assisted dying debate.

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Max Verstappen wins Formula One world title for a fourth straight year

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Max Verstappen wins Formula One world title for a fourth straight year

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has won the Formula One world title for a fourth straight year.

His victory was confirmed after finishing fifth at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Mercedes’ George Russell won the race.

Max Verstappen celebrates his win. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

The 27-year-old Dutchman becomes just the sixth driver in Formula One history to win four titles or more, after outscoring Lando Norris who took the chequered flag in only sixth.

Verstappen is now guaranteed the world crown with two races still remaining, with his domination cementing his name among Formula One’s greats.

“Oh my God man,” said an emotional Verstappen after securing the world title. “What a season. Four times. It was a little bit more difficult than last year.”

Lewis Hamilton raced back from 10th to second place to complete an impressive one-two finish for Mercedes. Carlos Sainz finished third for Ferrari, one place ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Russell’s third victory was the most dominant of his career so far, crossing the line 7.3 seconds clear of Hamilton.

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Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have each won a record seven, with 1950s Argentine legend Juan-Manuel Fangio on five ahead of Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and now Verstappen on four.

Having won every Drivers’ Championship since claiming his first in the controversial end to the 2021 season when he beat Hamilton in deeply contentious circumstances, Verstappen now joins Hamilton, Fangio and Vettel in winning four titles consecutively.

Only Schumacher has achieved a run of five.

Red Bull's principal sponsor Christian Horner on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. Pic: Reuters
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Red Bull’s principal sponsor Christian Horner on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. Pic: Reuters

The team were hit by controversy earlier this season, with Red Bull’s principal sponsor, Christian Horner, facing allegations of controlling behaviour by a female staff member. Horner, who denied the accusations, was cleared, and a subsequent appeal was thrown out.

Horner congratulated Verstappen on the radio, telling him: “Max Verstappen you are a four-time world champion. That is a phenomenal, phenomenal achievement. You can be incredibly proud of yourself.”

Red Bull is on course to finish third in the constructors’ championship this year. This century only Hamilton in 2008 with McLaren, and Verstappen in 2021, have won the drivers’ title when their team did not win the constructors’ championship.

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